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DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED AT PROVIDENCE, AUGUST 5, 1836, 



IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF RHODE-ISLAND 

AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. BEING THE SECOND 

CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



SETTLEMENT OF PROVIDENCE. 



BY JOHN PITMAN, 

MEMBER OF THE EHODE-ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



PROVIDENCE : 

B . CRANSTON & CO. 
MDCCCXXXVI. 



ProviJrnce, August 3t!i, 183G. 

Hon. John Pitmax : 

Sir— The Committee of Arrangements for the celcliration of the Second 
Centennial Anniversary of tlie Settlement of Providence, present you their 
grateful thanks for the Address pronomiced on that occasion, and respectfully 
solicit a copy for the press. They are highly gratified in believing that they 
express the unanimous wisli, not only of the respective bodies which they 
represent, but of the numerous and respectable audience who were present 
at its delivery. 

We have the honor to be, 

Very respectfully, your ob't serv'ts, 

THOMAS B. FENNER, ^ CoimnUtrr 
AMHERST EVERETT, \ of the. 
JOSEPH CADY, 5 City Council. 

W. R. STAPLES, I Committee of the 

THOMAS H. WEBB, \ Historical Society. 



Providence, August .5/A, 183G. 

Gentlemen : 

The Address, a copy of whicli you have been pleased to request for the 
press, is at your disposal. 

It will afford me sufficient gratification sjiould it, in any manner, contribute 
to increase our estimation of the great principle which gave being to our 
State, or kindle those emotions of patriotism which may lead us to promote 
our liigliest interests. For yourselves, and those whom you respectively 
represent, accept, gentlemen, the assurances of my lasting and grateful 
consideration. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

JOHN PITMAN. 

To Thomas B. Fenner, i Committee 
Amherst Everett, > of the 
Joseph Cadv, ) City Council. 

Wm. R. Staples, ) Committee of the 
Thomas H. Webb, \ Historical Society. 



DISCOURSE. 



Citizens of Providence, and Citizens of Rhode. Island — 

We are assembled at an interesting period in the history of 
our City and State. On the narrow isthmus which separates the 
past from the future, we are at the close of the second, and the 
commencement of the third century, since the founder of Rhode- 
Island here erected the standard of religious liberty. 

It was in the summer of 1G36, that Roger Williams, banished 
from Massachusetts, and warned by the friendly voice of the Gov- 
ernor of Plymouth, sought an asylum beyond the territories of 
cliristian men. Forsaking his plantation at Scekonk, he embarked 
on the Pawtucket, approaching the western shore, was greeted with 
the friendly wliatcheer of the natives, and doubling the southern 
promontories directed his little bark where a beautiful cove receiv- 
ed the waters of the Moshassuck. Here he landed ; beneath the 
forest boughs, and beside a crystal spring, he sought refreshment 
and repose ; here he offered up his thanks to God that, when the 
hearts of his civilized brethren were alienated, he had found sym- 
pathy, protection and sustenance from the rude children of nature, 
and here, in the thankfulness of his heart for past mercies, and full 
of pious hope for the future, he fixed his abode and named it Prov- 
idence. The spring remains and sends forth its refreshing waters, 
the only local memorial of the place of his landing and settlement. 
The principle remains which brought him hither, unimpaired by 
time, its truth tested and enforced by the experience of two hundred 
years, and now constituting, not the reproach of a small, despised, 
and persecuted colony, but the glory and happiness of millions of 
freemen. 



To commemorate this event, to honor this founder, to dwell on 
some passages of our history which may help us to appreciate 
the perils, toils, and sufferings of the Narragansett pilgrims, to 
discharge a portion of that debt which is due to the memory of our 
worthy ancestors, to cherish those principles which have made us 
what we are, and which we hope to transmit as their best inherit- 
ance to posterity — for these high purposes we are here assembled. 
The dimensions of our State are humble ; the politician of the 
day, in his estimate of relative power, regards us as of small ac- 
count ; but in the history of mind, in the progress of intellectual and 
moral excellence, what is there, from the dawn of the reformation, 
unto the present day, of more importance than the principle which 
gave birth to our State, and has pervaded all our institutions ? 

We celebrate annually the birth day of our independence, and 
long may we continue to celebrate it, not because we should delight 
in the story of wrong and outrage, of battles fought and battles 
won ; but because it tells the price of freedom, and shows how 
dearly it was purchased. But of what value is independence ? 
Why rejoice that we have broken a foreign yoke, if it should only 
prepare us for a domestic yoke of greater oppression. Unless our 
liberty is preserved, the story of the revolution would only cause 
us to lament that so much blood had been shed, and so much suf- 
fering endured in vain. It is liberty which gives to our annual cel- 
ebrations their greatest charm, their best propriety. It is that true 
liberty may be well understood, and duly appreciated, that lessons 
of wisdom may, on this day, be inculcated, that they may be en- 
forced by examples of heroism and patrotism which abounded in 
those glorious days of our republic — it is for these great ends, that 
this day should be commemorated, from age to age, by all that can 
impress the youthful mind, or animate and purify maturer years. 

If, then, liberty is the charm which awakens all hearts, shall we 
forget him who proclaimed, and suffered for proclaiming a principle 
which is the corner stone of freedom, and who made it the basis of 
our State ? a principle without which perfect civil liberty cannot 
long exist, and the existence of which will ultimately destroy 
tyranny in church and state ? 

Civil liberty may exist to a considerable extent without religious 
liberty ; but where religious liberty exists, her triumph insures the 
triumph of civil liberty. Destroy the hierarchy and you have re- 



moved the firmest support of the throne ; if the throne continues, it 
must be filled, not by an arbitrary monarch, but a constitutional 
king, who executes the will of the people. 

Look at the history of despotism, and you will find a two-fold 
cord has bound the human race. Force has enslaved the body, and 
superstition the mind. What but this has prevented, in our day, 
the regeneration of Spain and Portugal ? And what but this has 
deformed the history of South-American liberty and independence? 
The mind, free to act upon religious topics, unawed by councils, 
popes, or prelates, will not acknowledge the divine, or, in modern 
phrase, the legitimate right of kings. It was for this reason that 
the reformation accomplished so much for civil liberty, and that the 
puritans of England were the great reformers in church and state.* 

How long would the principles of the reformation have continued 
if the principle of Roger Williams had not been engrafted upon 
them ? The pope was quite as good a head of the church as Henry 
the eighth; quite as tolerant as Elizabeth, or James the first. The 
yoke of the Lords Bishops, of England, was not more intolerable 
than the dominion of the Lords brethren of Massachusetts. 

Take the most liberal sect among us, and give it dominion over 
all others, make it the religion of the State, give it patronage, and 
tythes from the property of all, and how long would it be before fit 
instruments would be found to conspire against our civil liberties, 
or a people servile enough to wear the chains of imperial and eccle- 
siastical bondage ? Many fear that they behold already, among us, 
the signs of political degeneracy, in the influence of that patronage 
which extends to every village of the Union ; but if you should add 
to this a permanent power to feed the bodies, and sway the souls of 
men, how long, think you, we should celebrate, with the spirit of 
freemen, the anniversary of our independence, or take any pleasure 
in perpetuating the evidences of our degeneracy ? 

I say, then, and without fear of contradiction from those who give 
it due reflection, that the principle of liberty of conscience which 

* " So absolute, indeed, was the authority of the crown, that the precious 
spark of liberty had been kindled, and was preserved by the puritans alone ; 
and it was to this sect, whose principles appear so frivolous, and habits so 
ridiculous, that the English owe the whole freedom of their Constitution" — 
Hume's England, chap. 40, Elizabeth's reign. 



8 

was first promulgated in Massachusetts by Roger Williams, which 
he boldly maintained before all their magistrates and ministers, and 
which, driven from thence, he brought to these shores, and made 
the inheritance of our children — that this principle is of more con- 
sequence to human liberty than Magna Charta, and constitutes, of 
itself, a bill of rights which practically secures the enjoyment of all. 

What honors, then, should cluster around his name, who, in an 
age when the most enlightened failed to perceive the simple and 
majestic proportions of this great truth, perceived it with a clear- 
ness, and illustrated it with a force, to which no succeeding age has 
added, and which now constitutes so much of the freedom and hap- 
piness of our common country. If we cannot compare with our 
sister States in the empire of matter, we may venture to compare 
with them in the empire of mind, and challenge them to produce a 
principle, in their settlement or progress, more vital than this to the 
perpetuation of our liberties. 

And here it may be well to take notice of a question, which has 
sometimes been agitated, whether Maryland, or Rhode-Island, is en- 
titled to the honor of having first introduced this principle in their 
settlement ? 

Maryland was founded before the settlement of Providence, and 
her Charter, in terms, secured to Christians liberty of conscience. 
Here was an implied exception, by which those who were not 
Christians were excluded from this liberty. In most cases excep- 
tions do not destroy, but prove the rule. In this case this exception 
was highly dangerous even to Christians ; for it is the peculiar fea- 
ture of religious bigotry, to cast out, as unchristian, those who hold 
not to the fundamentals of orthodoxy. Sir George Calvert was 
one of the two Secretaries of State under James I. He was a 
Protestant; but distracted by the divisions of the various sects, took 
refuge in the bosom of that church whose infallibility prevents such 
disorders. He became a Catholic, made an open profession of his 
conversion, and resigned his office, retaining, however, the favor of 
his sovereign. He came to Virginia ; but the Episcopalian zeal of 
this colony against Roman Catholics, prevented his settlement there, 
and his attention was turned to the country on this side the Potomac. 
He is believed to have penned the Charter of Maryland, which, in 
consequence of his death, issued for the benefit of his son in June, 
1632. The settlement of Maryland, under this Charter, was begun 



9 

March 27, 1634. Here, indeed, was an asylur.i for the Cathohc 
and the Protestant, such as then existed no where else in the Christ- 
ian world ; and, what might excite our special wonder, under the 
government of Roman Catholics. 

It is to be remembered, however, that this colony belonged to a 
Protestant nation, and could not have existed if there had been no 
liberty for Protestants. It has been suggested by an able writer* 
of our country, that a toleration of the Church of England would 
have satisfied the English government ; yet it could not have es- 
caped the sagacity of that observing statesman, Sir George Calvert, 
that such a toleration would have been the most dangerous for his 
Catholic colonists. He had experienced, in Virginia, what his col- 
ony would have to fear from their Episcopalian neighbors ; and if 
he was compelled to tolerate one sect of Protestants, true policy re- 
quired that he should give freedom to all, that the Puritans might 
aid the Catholics in preventing the preponderance and intolerance 
of those who belonged to the national church. It was, no doubt, in 
pursuance of this policy, that afterwards. Lord Baltimore invited 
the Puritans of Massachusetts to emigrate to Maryland, offering them 
lands, and privileges, and free liberty of religion. 

The founder of Rhode-Island, not guided by policy, but pursuing 
his principle to its legitimate conclusion, confined not his views to 
the boundaries of Christianity, but denied the right of the magistrate 
to interfere with the religious conscience of any man. Here the 
Papist, the Protestant, the Jew, the Turk, might have remained un- 
molested, so long as they disturbed not the public peace. f 

In Maryland, the Statute of 1649, enacted by the Catholics to 
perpetuate religious freedom in conformity with the Charter, con- 
tains exceptions and provisions by which many of those, in our day, 
who at least believe themselves within the pale of Christianity, so 
far from being tolerated, might have been punished with death. By 

*Mr. Walsh's Appeal, page 428. Note C. 

1"It is the will and command of God, that since the comming of his Sonne, 
(the Lord Jesus.) a permission of the most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish or 
Antichristian consciences and worships, bee granted to all men in all Na- 
tions and Countries : and they arc oncly to be fought against with that sword 
which is oncly (in Soulc mattfrs,) able to conquer, towit, the Sword of God's 
Spirit, the Word of God." — Introduction to the " Bloody Tcncnt." 



10 

this Statute it was made a capital offence to deny the Holy Trinity, 
or the Godhead of any of the three persons of the Trinity.* 

But this great, and, in our country, conservative principle of Ro- 
ger Williams, dates not, with him, from the foundation of our State ; 
he proclaimed it in Massachusetts three years before the settlement 
of Maryland, and more than one year before the date of her charter. 

Unhappily for Maryland, the enlightened policy of Calvert did 
not prevail through all the periods of her colonial history. The 
Catholics, however, were sinned against, not sinning. During the 
protectorate they were in trouble from the puritans, and, at the ac- 
cession of the House of Orange, their chartered rights were swept 
away, and the Church of England became the established religion 
of the Colony. f 

The early history of New-England presents a new scene in the 
great drama of human life. 

The discovery of America had increased the spirit of maritime 
adventure, opened new sources of commerce, inflamed the cupidity 
of avarice, destroyed the sympathies of our nature in those who 
conquered kingdoms, overturned dynasties, and doomed millions of 
their fellow-creatures to servitude and death in their career of do- 
minion and plunder ; so that the philanthropist of the sixteenth cen- 
tury might well have pronounced a wo upon that discovery which 
gave a new world to the insatiable rapacity of the old, and increased 
only the catalogue of misery and crime. The next century pre- 
sents us with another picture. In the northern hemisphere a new 
principle of colonization commences, a new race of conquerors and 
adventurers appear : — they have taken the sword, it is " the sword 
of the spirit ;" they are clad in armor, it is " the whole armor of 
God ;" theirs is " the helmet of salvation," " the breastplate of 
righteousness;" they are eager for conquest, it is for the conquest of 
the wilderness, that it may blossom with the rose of Sharon, and 
bring forth fruit unto holiness. A sound is on the waters, and 
echoes along the shore ; is it the war cry, or notes of martial min- 
strelsy? Woman's voice is on the gale, and age and infancy are 

* Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. 1, page 276. 
"This act was confirmed among the perpetual laws in 1676. — Story's 
Commentaries on the Constitution, vol. 1, page 96. 
t Walsh's Appeal, page 50. 



11 

there ; it is the song of deliverance, it comes from pious hearts, and 
is full of thanksgiving and prayer. 

The twenty-second of December, 1620, is memorable for the 
landing of the fathers of New-England on the rock of Plymouth ; 
and well has it been, and long will it be commemorated, by paint- 
ing, and poetry, and eloquence. The success of the Plymouth set- 
tlers induced other puritans of England to seek here the same lib- 
erty. In 1623, was laid the foundation of the Massachusetts Colo- 
ny, by the settlement of Salem, and in 1630, the City of Boston was 
founded. 

The fathers of the Plymouth Colony were ^^separatists''' from the 
Church of England, when they took refuge in Holland, twelve years 
before their pilgrimage to America. 

The I\Iassachusetts fathers, and particularly those who came 
with Governor Winthrop in 1630, though desirous of reforming the 
exterior worship of the Church of England, retained communion 
with it ; before their departure, on board their fleet, they addressed 
a farewell letter to their brethren of this church, expressive of their 
affectionate attachment to it, and of their desires for its prosperity. 

In February, 1630, O. S. 1631, new style, Roger Williams ar- 
rived in the Massachusetts colony. He had been ordained a min- 
ister of the Church of England, but had become a separatist. On 
his arrival at Boston, he refused to communicate with the churcli 
there, unless they would express their repentance for their commu- 
nion with the Church of England, and then announced the great 
and most offensive truth that the magistrate had no right to enforce 
religious duties. He soon went to Salem, where he was more ac- 
ceptable, and was called by the church to the office of a teacher. 
This alarmed the Massachusetts Court. They sent a letter to Sa- 
lem stating his dangerous opinions. " They marvelled they would 
chose him without advising with the Council," and desired " tliat 
they would forbear to proceed till they had conferred about it." 
This was in April, 1631. 

We here perceive a feature, in the Massachusetts government, 
which not only struck at the root of liberty of opinion, but at the 
independency of churches. 

The church of Salem was organized August 6th, 1629, in pres- 
ence of delegates from the Plymouth church, and so attached were 
they to the principle of independency, and so jealous of whatever 



12 

might infringe upon it, that they " declared that the church in 
Plymouth should not claim any jurisdiction over the church in Sa- 
lem, and further that the authority of ordination should not exist in 
the clergy, but should depend on the free election of the members 
of the church."* 

What, then, must have been the surprize of the Salem church at 
this attempt, of the magistrates, to control their " free election" of a 
teacher ! They treated it as it deserved, and received Mr. Williams 
(as the historian of Salemf informs us) the same day, as their teach- 
er. But power, whether right or wrong, was not to be thus slight- 
ed with impunity. An opposition was raised against Mr. Williams, 
and to preserve his own peace and that of the church, he removed, 
in the same year, to Plymouth, and was there well received by the 
church, and became an assistant to Mr. Ralph Smith, their pastor. 
At Plymouth Mr. Williams remained about two years. His teach- 
ing was there well approved, " for the benefit whereof, (said Gov- 
ernor Bradford,) I shall bless God, and am thankful to him ever for 
his sharpest admonitions and reproofs so far as they agree with 
truth." 

Mr. Williams returned to Salem, by the invitation of the church 
there, in August, 1633. He was induced to accept this invitation 
from his attachment to the Salem church, and from some of his sen- 
timents not agreeing with those of some of the leading men at Ply- 
mouth. What these sentiments were we are not particularly in- 
formed, but may in part conjecture from the fact that Mr. Brew- 
ster, the ruling elder of the Plymouth church, advised those of the 
church who were unwilling to part with him to let him go, saying 
" he feared that he would run the same course of rigid separation, 
and Ana-haptistry, which Mr. John Smith, the Se-hcqAist at Amster- 
dam, had done." 

The cliurch of Plymouth, had been favored whilst in England 
and Holland, with the instructions of the celebrated John Robinson, 
who, though prevented by various causes, and ultimately by death, 
from coming to America, may be considered as the father of the 
Plymouth colony. They could not liave forgotten his parting 
memorable injunctions: " I charge you before God and his blessed 

* Rgv. Mr. Upham's Dedication Sermon on the Principles of the Reform- 
ation — Notcspagc 52. 
tDr. Bcntley. 



13 

angels to follow mc no further than I tbllow Christ, and if God shall 
reveal any thing to you by any other instrument of his, be as ready 
to receive it as you were to receive any truth by my ministry, for 
I am very confident that he has more truth and light yet to break 
forth out of his holy word, for it is not possible the Christian world 
should come so lately out of such thick anti-christian darkness, and 
that full perfection of knowledge should ••* break tbrth at once." 

Roger Williams had drank deeply of this spirit, and this may 
have been the reason why several of the Plymouth church were so 
much attached to him that they followed him to Salem ; but the 
ruling elder beheld with fear the working of the free and searching 
mind of Williams, and thought it most prudent that he should depart, 
to be dealt with, to use his own words, " by the abler men of the 
Bay."* 

There was no peace in Salem for Mr. Williams, tliough beloved 
by his flock, and approved by Endicott and Skelton. In about four 
months after his return, " by the advice of some of the most judi- 
cious ministers," says Winthrop, he was summoned before the 
Court to answer for a manuscript which he had written at Plym- 
outh, a copy of which he had delivered to the Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, at his request. In this were examined the sins of the 
patent, and the rights of the natives, and contained some expressions 
which were seized upon in vindication of the King's majesty. Mr. 
Williams gave "sufficient satisfaction of his loyalty," and on further 
consideration the offensive matters appeared " not so evil as at first 
they seemed," yet there was required of him an oath of allegiance, 
as if there had been good grounds to question his loyalty. 

In August, 1634, on the death of Mr. Skelton, tb.e church ordained 
him as their pastor, which was deemed a contempt of the au- 
thority of the magistrates. The succeeding November, Mr. Wil- 
liams was called before the Court " for teaching against the king's 
patent and for terming the churches of England anti-christian" — the 
next April fur teaching that " an oath ought not to be tendered to 
an unregenerate man." In July, 1G35, was preferred against him 
the great indictment, when he was, for the first time, held to answer 
for that opinion which had been no doubt the procuring cause of all 
the other charges against him, as it struck at the root of that au- 

* New-England's Blcmorial, page 151, Judge Davis's edition. 



14 

thority which was so dear to magistrates and ministers. The ac- 
count of the proceedings of the court, at this time, in the words of 
Winthrop, is as follows : 

" Mo. 5, 8. At the General Court, Mr. Williams, of Salem, 
was summoned and did appear. It was laid to his charge that, 
being under question before the magistracy and churches for divers 
dangerous opinions, viz.-l. That the magistrate ought not to punish 
the breach of tiie first table otherwise than in such cases as did 
dislurh the civil j)eace. 2. That he ought not to tender an oath to 
an imregencrate man. 3. That a man ought not to pray with 
such, though wife, child, &c. 4. That a man ought not to give 
thanks after sacrament, nor after meat, &c. — and that the other 
churches were about to write to the church of Salem to admonish 
him of these errors, notwithstanding the church had since called 
him to the office of a teacher. Much debate was about these 
things. The said opinions were adjudged by all magistrates and 
ministers (who were desired to be present) to be erroneous, and 
very dangerous, and the calling him to office, at that time, was 
judged a great contempt of authority. So, in fine, time was given 
to him and the Church of Salem to consider of these things till the 
next General Court, and then either to give satisfaction to the Court, 
or else to expect the sentence ; it being professedly declared by the 
viinisters, (at the request of the Court to give their advice) that he 
who should obstinately maintain such opinions (whereby a Church 
might run into heresy, nposlacy or tyranny, and yet the civil magis. 
trale could not intermeddle) were to be removed, and that the other 
churches ought to request the magistrates so to do.'"* 

This then was the opinion which deserved re?noval, that " the 
civil magistrate could not intermeddle to prevent heresy, &c. in the 
churches." The other charges were thrown in, probably, for pop- 
ular effect, but this was the unpardonable sin. 

The Church of Salem is here condemned, though it docs not ap- 
pear they were called upon to answer except in the person of their 
minister. But what is the doctrine thus promulgated ? That the 
churches ought to request the magistrates to remove a minister of 
another independent church for his opinions. Let us now go back 

* Savage's Winthrop, vol, 1, p. 1C2. 



15 

a little, and behold how consistency, and the liberties of the clmrch 
were sacrificed for the removal of Mr. Williams. 

In November, 1G33, Governor Winthrop informs us that " the 
ministers in the Bay and Saugus did meet, once a fortnight, at one 
of their houses, by course, where some question of moment was de- 
bated. Mr. Skelton, the pastor of Salem, and Mr. Williams, who 
was removed from Plymouth thither, (but not in any office, though 
he exercised by way of prophecy,) took some exception against it, 
as fearing it might grow in time to a presbytery or superintendcn- 
cy, to the prejudice of the cliurchcs' liberties. But this fear was 
without cause ; for they were all clear in that point, that no church 
or person can have power over another church ; neither did they in 
their meetings exercise any such jurisdiction, &c."* 

" No church or person can have power over another church." 
Such was the unanimous opinion of the ministers in 1633. In 1635 
there is the same unanimity, but the doctrine is : The church in 
Salem, was guilty of a great contempt of authority, in choosing and 
oi'daining their own minister ; that this minister ought to be remov- 
ed for his opinions, and the other churches have a right to take 
cognizance of these opinions, and to request the magistrates to re- 
move him. Can we wonder if the clear-sighted Roger Williams 
beheld here the same spirit of anti-christ v/hich he so much abhor- 
red in England ? And is it strange that he should refuse communion 
with churches that sanctioned such doctrines ? 

The time allowed Mr. Williams, and the Salem church, to con- 
sider of these things, and give satisfaction or expect sentence, was 
productive only of more difficulty. The town of Salem had pcti- 
tioned the Court for some land which they claimed on Marblehead 
Neck, " but, (says Winthrop,) because they had chosen Mr. Wil- 
liams their teacher, while he stood under question of authority, and 
so offi^red contempt to the magistrates, &;c. ; their petition was re- 
fused till, &c." (meaning, no doubt, till they had given the satisfac- 
tion required of them.) " Upon this, the church of Salem wrote to 
the other churches, to admonish the magistrates of this as a heinous 
sin, and likewise the deputies, for which, at the next General Court, 
their deputies were not received until they should give satisfaction 
about the letter, "f 

* Savage's Winthrop, vol. 1. p. 117. 
t Savage's Winthrop, vol. 1, p. 164. 



16 

Sad times, indeed, for the liberties and the rights of Salem ! They 
arc deprived of the right to choose their minister ! For asserting this 
right they were outlawed and their land withheld from them, and 
for appealing to the churches in relation to this infringement upon 
their liberties, they were deprived of their deputies. 

Under this complication of tyranny it is not surprising that Mr. 
Williams, in August, 1635, " being sick, and unable to speak, (as 
Winthrop informs us,) wrote his church a protestation that he could 
not communicate with the churches in the Bay ; neither could he 
communicate with them, except they would refuse communion with 
the rest ; but the whole church was grieved herewith."* 

The able biographer of Roger Williams condemns this act some- 
what unadvisedly, saying, in excuse: "In this conduct he was 
doubtless wrong, yet who will venture to say, that if he had been 
placed in the situation of Mr. Williams, he would have maintained 
a more subdued spirit ?"f 

Under these circumstances, the spirit of most men would, indeed, 
liave been subdued, and pastor and people made their peace by sub- 
mission. But such was not the spirit of Roger Williams ; though 
sick, he saw that he must separate himself from his church if they 
submitted, or himself submit to the tyranny which had been erected 
over them. He was not prepared for the latter, and his letter was 
intended to test how far his church would resist such tyranny ; it 
was a trial they were not able to bear, but their weakness could not 
shake his determination, for he was a man, says Dr. Bentley, " that 
Avas not afraid to stand alone for truth against the world." We are 
therefore prepared to behold him, for the last time, before the mag- 
istrates "and all the ministers in the Bay," happy if there had been 
transmitted to us a portion of that truth and glowing eloquence with 
which he defended himself on that occasion. It was in November, 
1635, and the proceedings are thus narrated by Winthrop. 

" At this general assembly, Mr. Williams, the teacher of Salem, 
was again convented ; and all the ministers in the Bay being desired 
to be present, he was charged with the said two letters, — that to the 
churches complaining of the magistrates for injustice, extreme op- 
pression, &c. ; and the other to his own church, to persuade them 

* Savage's Winthrop, vol. 1. p. 166. 

t Knowles'o Memoir of Roger Williams, page 71. 



17 

to renounce communion with all the churches in the bay, as flill of 
anti-christian pollution, &c. He justified both these letters, and main- 
tained all his opinions ; and being offered further conference or dis- 
putation, and a month's respite, he chose to dispute presently. So 
Mr. Hooker was appointed to disjjute with him, but could not re- 
duce him from any of his errors. So, the next morning, the court 
sentenced him to depart out of our jurisdiction within six weeks, all 
the ministers, save one, approving the sentence ; and his own church 
had him under question also, for the same cause ; and he, at his re- 
turn home, refused communion with his own church, who openly 
disclaimed his errors, and wrote an humble submission to the mag- 
istrates, acknowledging their fault in joining with Mr. Williams in 
that letter to the churches against them, &:c."* 

Thus triumphed power, and thus was consummated an act of op- 
pression, by an union of church and state, by which a beloved pastor 
was again separated from his people, and the liberties of the church 
prostrated, to guard it from " heresy, apostacy and tyranny T'' Neal 
says, " when Mr. Williams was banished, the whole town of Salem 
was in an uproar, for he was esteemed an honest, disinterested man, 
and of popular talents in the pulpit." 

In the account of Winthrop, it might seem that the letters were the 
principal cause of banishment. It must be remembered, however, that 
Mr. Williams had given no satisfaction, to the court, in relation to liis 
fundamental heresy, in denying the authority of magistrates in things 
spiritual, and that the sentence for this was suspended over him 
when these letters were written, in vindication of his conduct in this 
respect. The sentence yet remains of record, dated November 3d, 
1635, and runs thus : " Wiiereas Mr. Roger Williams, one of the 
elders of the church of Salem, hath broached and dy vulged, dy vers 
newe and dangerous opinions against the authoritie of magistrates, 
as also writt Lrs. of defamation, both of the magistrates and churches 
here, and that before any conviction, and yet nnaintaineth the same 
without retraccon ; It is therefore ordered, that the said Mr. Wil- 
Hams shall depte out of this jurisdiction within six weekes nowe next 
ensueinge, which if bee neglect to performe, it shall be lawful! for the 
Govn', and two of the Magistrates to send him to some place out of 

*Winthrop, vol. 1, pat^e 171. 
C 



this jurisJiction, not to returne any more without Hcencc from the 
Court." 

Mr. WiHiams had liberty granted him to remain at Salem until 
spring, probably owing to the excitement which was produced there 
by his sentence of banishment. But, in January, he was driven 
from his home, into the wilderness, to escape being transported to 
England, under pretence that he had violated the injunction laid 
upon him not " to go about to draw others to his opinion," and tlie 
fact alleged in proof of this, was, that he entertained company in 
his house, and preached unto tliem, it was said, on points he had 
been censured for. But " the reason was," says Winthrop, and it 
is worthy of our special notice, " because he had drawn about twen- 
ty persons to his opinion, and they were intended to erect a planta- 
tion about the Narragansett Bay, from whence the infection would 
easily spread into the churches, (the people being, many of them, 
much taken with the apprehension of his godliness.) Whereupon a 
warrant was sent to him to come presently to Boston to be shipped, 
&c. He returned answer, (and divers of Salem came with it,) that 
he could not come without hazard of his life, &c. Whereupon a 
pinnace was sent with commission to Captain Underbill, &c. to ap- 
prehend him, and carry him on board the ship, (which then rode at 
Natuscutt,) but when they came at his house, they found he had 
been gone three days before ; but whither they could not learn."* 

Every Englishman considers his house as his castle, and Mr. 
Williams might have supposed that he had liberty of speech in his 
own house, without subjecting himself to the charge of going about 
to draw others to his opinion ; be this as it may, no opportunity was 
given him to defend himself against this charge, and, it would seem, 
it was made a pretence to cover a most tyrannical attempt against 
his liberty and rights. What right had these magistrates beyond 
the bounds of their patent ? and, if they chose to withdraw the liberty 
they had granted Mr. Williams, under pretence that he had forfeit- 
ed itj what right had they to do any thing moi'e than give him no- 
tice to depart out of their jurisdiction, agreeably to the sentence? 
But Mr. Williams had committed a sin which was to be punished by 
transportation ; he was guilty of being beloved by many of the peo- 
ple, and he designed to lead them into the wilderness, and erect a 

* 1. Winthrop, p. 177. 



19 

plantation where they might enjoy hbcrty of conscience. To crush 
such a conspiracy in favor of human rights, and to destroy, in em- 
bryo, the Narragansett colony, this act of arbitrary power was re- 
sorted to. 

This conduct of the magistrates is not to be palliated by referring 
us to the bigotry of the age. It was an assumption of arbitrary 
power which thus trampled on the rights of a fcUow-subject, and ar- 
rogated unto themselves the right to prevent him from colonizing 
beyond their patent, a right which belonged only to their common 
sovereign. They may have been good men, and no doubt were so, 
in other things, but they were not good in this ; they were corrupt- 
ed by, that grand corrupter, power ; the love of dominion had taken 
root, and " grew with what it fed on," and State necessity, " neces- 
sity, the tyrant's plea," was ready to justify, what there was light 
enough, even in that age, to condemn. 

Mr. Winthrop was not Governor when Mr. Williams was thus 
driven from Salem, " though," says Williams, " he were carried 
with the stream for my banishment, yet he tenderly loved me to 
his last breath ;" and how differently he felt, from his brethren, in 
relation to the settlement here, we are happy to learn from another 
letter of Mr. Williams in which he says : " When I was unkindly 
and unchristianly, as I believe, driven from my house and land and 
wife and children, (in the midst of a New-England winter, now 
about thirty-five years past) at Salem, that ever-honored Governor, 
Mr. Winthrop, privately wrote to me to steer my course to the 
Narragansett Bay and Indians, for many high and heavenly and 
public ends, encouraging me from the freeness of the place from 
any English claims or patents."* 

Mr. Williams had now to encounter the perils of the wilderness. 
He says, " he steered his course from Salem, though in winter snow 
which he felt yet," (thirty-five years afterwards,) and " was sorely 
tossed for fourteen weeks, in a bitter winter season, not knowing 
what bread or bed did mean." 

We find him, in the following spring, at Seekonk, on the eastern 
bank of the Pawtucket river, on land granted to him by Ousame- 
quin, or Massasoit, where he had begun to build and plant. He 
removed from thence, in consequence of a letter which he received 

* Williams' Letter to Major Mason, published in lat vol. Masb. Hiat. Coll. 
and in Knowleb' App. page 393. 



20 

from the Governor of Plymouth, the character of which, in justice 
to both, wo give in the words of Roger Williams : " I received a 
letter from my ancient friend, Mr. Winslow, then Governor of Ply- 
mouth, professing his own and others' love and respect to me, yet 
lovingly advising me, since I was fallen into the edge of their 
bounds, and they were loth to displease the bay, to remove but to 
the other side of the water, and then he said I had the country free 
before me, and might be as free as themselves, and we should be 
loving neighbors together."* 

At what time Roger AVilliams removed from Seckonk, agreeably 
to this advice, we cannot ascertain to a day, or a month. We 
learn from him, incidentally, that his removal occasioned him the 
loss of a harvest that season, and therefore he could not have come 
here in season to have planted. Ho came, therefore, no doubt, in 
the summer, and after he had negotiated, with the Chief Sachems of 
Narragansctt, for land and a peaceable settlement. The earliest 
record we have of his being here, is the journal of Governor Win- 
throp, under date of July 26, old style, when mention is made of 
information received from him by the Governor of Massachusetts 
of the murder of Oldham, and the conduct of Miantinomo on that 
occasion. In this uncertainty, as to the particular time of Roger 
Williams' arrival here, it has been deemed highly appropriate, in 
commemoration, not only of our settlement, but of the character of 
our founder, to set apart this day as the earliest record of the one, 
and the time when he commenced those essential services to those 
who banished him, which have done him so much honor. 

Roger Williams had early imbibed the spirit of a missionary, in 
relation to the Indians. " My soul's desire, said he, was to do them 
good," and he rightly deemed that a knowledge of their language 
was essential to enable him to conciliate their affections, and preach 
to them with effect. While he lived in Plymouth and Salem, he says, 
" God was pleased to give him a painful patient spirit to lodge with 
them in their filthy smoky holes to gain their tongue." A know- 
ledge of iheir language, a just notion of their rights, and the means 
which he employed to gain the affections of the natives, enabled 
him to procure from Canonicus and Miantinomo, the Chief Sachems 
of the Narragansetts, the land which first constituted the Providence 

* Letter to Major Mason. 



21 

colony. In a deed of confirmation of these lands to his associates, 
dated 20th December, 1G61, and now on the Providence records, 
he says, that he " was by God's merciful assistance the procurer 
of the purchase, not by monies, nor payment, the natives being so 
shv and jealous that monies could not do it, but by that language, 
acquaintance and favor with the natives, and other advantages 
which it pleased God to give him." In this he means that money 
alone could not have procured the purchase, but this was also 
necessary ; for in this same deed, he says, that he " bore the 
charges and venture of all the gratuities which he gave to the great 
Sachems and natives round about." To enable him to do this he 
says, in another place, "that he mortgaged his house in Salem, 
worth some hundreds, for supplies to go through, &c." 

The deed from the Chief Sachems to Roger Williams, is dated 
" at Narragansett, the 24th of the first month, commonly called 
March, the second j'ear o^ the plantation, or the planting at Mo- 
shassuck, or Providence," being, in fact, in the year 1G38, new 
style.* This deed recites the purchase to have been made, by Ro- 
ger Williams, two years before, and, after setting forth the bounds 
of the first purchase, has the following clause : " We also, in con- 
sidcration of the many kindnesses and services he hath continually 
done for us, both with our friends of Massachusetts, as also at Con- 
necticut, and Apaum, or Plymouth, we do freely give to him all 
that land from those rivers,f reaching to Pawtuxet river ; as also 
the grass and meadows upon the said Pawtuxet river." The first 
purchase made by Roger Williams in 1636, and conveyed by this 
deed, were the lands and meadows upon the rivers Moshassuck and 
Wanasquatucket, the bounds of which were established and confirmed 
by this deed, as follows : " From the river and fields oC Pawtucket, 
the great hill of Notaquoncanot, on the northwest, and the town of 
Mashapaug, on the west." The other lands, extending to Pawtux- 
et river, and the grass and meadows on the same, were conveyed to 
Roger Williams in 1638, as a gratuity for his kindnesses and ser. 
vices. 

In Octobei", 1638, Roger Williams conveyed, in consideration of 
thirty pounds, expressed, " equal right and power of disposing of the 

* See App. A. 

t I\Ientioncd in the preceding part of tlicdccd — the Moshassuck and Wan- 
asquatucket. 



22 

same grounds and lands,"' contained in llic fu'st purchase, with him- 
self, to twelve of his associates, and, in the words of the deed, " such 
others as the mnjor part of us shall admU into the same fellowship 
of vote with us. ^^ The same deed also granted to the twelve an 
equal right to the Pawtuxct lands with himself. This deed was im- 
perfect, containing only the initials of the twelve, bting written, as 
Williams afterwards alleged, " in a strait of time and haste." In 
reference to the Pawtuxet lands, however, there was another instru- 
ment, executed on the same day, by Roger Williams and the twelve, 
in which their names are fully expressed, and by which it was 
agreed between them, that the Pawtuxet lands should be equally di- 
vided between them, and that each should pay an equal proportion 
of twenty pounds, and that those who failed so to do, within eight 
weeks, from the date thereof, should forfeit their proportion to those 
of the twelve who should pay the same to Roger Williams. On 
this agreement is an acknowledgment by Roger Williams, dated 
December 3d, 1638, that he had received " of the neighbors above 
said, the full sum of £18 lis. 3d." being twelve-thirteenths of the 
twenty pounds, the other thirteenth being his own share.* The Paw- 
tuxet lands thus became the property of the thirteen ; but in the first 
purchase, according to the deed, provision was made also for the 
new comers, the deed being not only to the twelve, but to such oth- 
ers as the major part should admit into their fellowship ; there was 
therefore a good reason why the consideration for the Pawtuxet 
lands should be paid by the twelve in the manner provided for as 
above mentioned, but not the same reason in reference to the thirty 
pounds specified as the consideration for Moshassuck. If these 
thirty pounds had been paid or secured by the grantees, it is sin- 
gular that they should have been willing to have received such a 
deed, and that they had not been as particular in regard to the Mo- 
shassuck, as the Pawtuxet lands, the consideration of the former 
being, in truth, larger than the latter. Why, in reference to the 
latter, they should have been careful to have had an agreement con- 
taining their names in full, and providing that those who paid should 
have the share of those who neglected to pay, and to have had within 
the time provided, an acknowledgment endorsed of the stipulated 
payment — why they should have been so careful with regard to the 
lesser, and were willing to receive only the initial deed for the greater, 

* See App. B. 



23 

cannot easily be accounted for if they paid the thirty pounds as well 
as the t\vent3\ This makes it probable that the twelve were ad- 
mitted to an equal share in the first purchase gratuitously, and that 
the thirty pounds was to be paid, not by them, but by the new com- 
ers, as their portion of land was assigned them, as stated in the 
above mentioned deed of 1061, sometimes called the historical deed. 
This deed contains much recital, and was, no doubt, intended by 
Roger Williams, as well for the purpose of confirming to his asso- 
ciates their title to his first purchase, as to place on record the man- 
ner of the purchase, and of his apportionment of the same equally 
among them. Disputes, growing out of the Pawtuxet lands, and oth- 
er things, had induced some to call in question what Roger Williams 
was disposed here to record in perpetual memory. In this deed, af- 
ter reciting the expences and trouble he had been at in procuring 
the grant, he says, " it was, therefore, thought fit by some loving 
friends, that I should receive some loving consideration and gratui- 
ty, and it was agreed between us that every person that should be 
admitted into the fellowship of enjoying land and disposing of the 
purchase, should pay thirty shillings into the public stock ; and first 
about thirty pounds should be paid unto myself, by thirty shillings a 
person, as they were admitted ; this sum I received, and in love to 
my friends, and with respect to a town and place of succor for the 
distressed as aforesaid, I do acknowledge the said sum and payment 
as full satisfaction." * 

Afterwards, on the 22d December, 1G66, Roger Williams exe- 
cuted another deed of the first purchase, having the same date as 
the initial deed, (October 8th, 1638,) and intended to be a copy of 
the same, in all other respects except the names of the grantees, 
and rivers, which were written at full length. f The deed of 1661 
was full confirmation to them of their title ; but this may have been 
required as a security to intermediate purchasers, or those who had 
disputed the facts alleged in the historical deed might not be willing 
to claim under the same. We say those, but we know not that 
there was more than one:}: who was disposed to dispute the recitals 
of the historical deed. 

* See Knowles p. 115, and Backus, Vol. 1, p. 93. See App. C. 
tKnowles, p. 112, note. See App. D. 

I Mr. William Harris. See an Historical account of the settlement of 
Providence, in the Rhode-Island Regiatcr for 1823, by our venerable towns- 



24 

The namos ol'tlie original grantees of Roger Williams, were Stiikc- 
ly Westcott, William Arnold, Thomas James, Robert Cole, John 
Greene, John Throckmorton, William Harris, William Carpenter, 
Thomas Olney, Francis Weston, Richard Waterman, and Ezekiel 
Ilolliman ; five of these, it appears from the Massachusetts records, 
did not leave Massachusetts until April, 1638, viz.: Olney, Weston, 
Westcott, Waterman, and Holliman.* 

Who came with Roger Williams from Salem to Seekonk, and after- 
wards to Moshassuck, the antiquarians are not agreed. Gov. Hop- 
kins, in his History of Providence, says : " So great was the love of 
some of his church for him, that they would not forsake him in this 
extreme distress, and twelve of them voluntarily went into exile and 
the solitary wilderness with him ;" these twelve he afterwards names, 
(the same to whom the deed of 8th October, 1638, was given,) as the 
" twelve poor suffering companions of Roger Williams" in his settle, 
ment here. Probably Gov. Hopkins was misled by the names of 
these persons appearing in this deed, five of whom, as above stated, 
did not leave the Massachusetts colony until April, 1638. 

The biographer of Roger Williams has stated, upon the authority 
of our ancient fellow-citizen, Mo!5cs Brown, that those who accom- 
panied Roger Williams, at his first landing here, were five, viz.: 
William Harris, John vSmith, Joshua Verin, Thomas Angell, and 
Francis Wickes, and that it " is not certain that any one accom- 
panied him from Salem to Seekonk, though a number of persons 
were with him a short time afterwards." (Page 100.) 

Backus gives a tradition that Roger Williams, with " Thomas 
Angell, a hired servant, and some others," (whom he does not 
name,) " went over from Seekonk in a canoe and were saluted by 
the Indians near the lower ferry by the word whatcheer!" — that 
" they went round till they got to a pleasant spring above the great 
bridge, where they landed ; and near to which both he and Angell 
lived to old age." (Vol. 1, p. 74, note.) 

man, Mr. Moses Brown, in which he takes a different view from Backus and 
Knowles, in relation to the manner in which the first purchase was commu- 
nicated to the twelve. We must be careful, however, not to confound the 
first purchase, with the disputes about the Pawtuxet lands. The verdict of 
the Jury referred to in page 93, of this account, was in reference to the Paw- 
tuxet lands. 

* Backus, vol. 1, page 92, note. 



25 

Dr. Ezra Stylos informs us, in his Itinerary, that in Nov. 1771, 
he visited, at Providence, Mr. John Angell, who, among other 
things, informed liim that his grandfather, Thomas Angell, came 
from Salem to Providence with Roger Williams. 

A gentleman, of much antiquarian sagacity and research, is inchned 
to the opinion, from an ancient paper, now in his possession, that 
those who first came here with Roger Williams, were John Throck- 
morton, John Greene, William Harris, Joshua Verin, and WiUiam 
Arnold. This paper, however, furnishes no evidence at variance 
with the tradition in relation to Thomas Angell, as, on account of 
his non-age, his name would not appear among the first proprietors. 
The records of Providence were in part destroyed by fire, and 
water, in Philip's war. The oldest record that now remains, is Au- 
gust 20, 1637. An old book, with a parchment cover, has this 
date on the inside of the cover, and its first record is the following: 
" We whose names are here under, desirous to inhabit in the town of 
Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive 
obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for 
public good of the body in an orderly way, by the major consent of 
the present inhabitants, masters of families incorporated together 
into a town fellowship, and others whom they shall admit unto them, 
only ill civil things:' These few words—" only in civil things,"— 
are of extensive significancy. They distinctly mark the great 
principle contended for by Roger Williams, that the magistrate 
should have no authority over religious concernments. This paper 
is subscribed by Richard Scott, William Renolds, Chad Browne, 
John Warner, John Field, George Rickard, Edward Cope, Thomas 
Angell, Thomas Harris, Francis Weeks, Benedict Arnold, Joshua 
Winsor, and William Wickenden— thirteen, none of whose names 
are in the subsequent deed of the purchase to the twelve. 

It is said this was the engagement signed by the new comers, 
and it is inferred that the first comers had before signed a similar 
engagement. This seems highly probable from their names not 
befng" to this, and that this speaks of the then inhabitants as incor- 
porated into a town fellowship, which could only have been by then- 
own act. 

Wc behold here a government of perfect freedom ; none lordmg 
it over God's heritage, and all power in civil things depending on 
the will of the mnjority. 

D 



26 

In a letter which Mr. Williams wrote to the town of Providence, 
in 1654, after his second return from England, he sa5's : * « I have 
been charged with folly (no doubt by some of his friends in Eng- 
land) for that freedom and liberty which I have always stood for ; 
I say liberty and equality both in land and government. I have 
been blamed for parting with Moshassuck, and afterward Pawtuxet, 
(which were mine as truly as any man's coat on his back,) without 
reserving unto myself a foot of land or an inch of voice in any mat. 
ter more than to my servants and strangers." 

Such disinterestedness is as rare as praiseworthy, and fully war- 

rants the praise Mr. Callander bestowed nearly a century since : 

" Mr. Williams appears, by the whole course and tenor of his life 
and conduct here, to have been one of the most disinterested men that 
ever lived ; a most pious and heavenly minded soul.'' f 

There seems to have been as great a difference in the political 
views of Roger Williams, from those of his great opponent, Mr. 
Cotton, as in their views of religious liberty. The latter, in an ad- 
dress to Lord Say, observed : "Democracy I do not conceive that 
ever God did ordain as a fit government either for church, or com. 
monwealth. As for monarchy, and aristocracy, they are both of 
them clearly approved and directed in scripture ; yet so as referreth 
the sovereignty to himself, and setteth up theocracy in both, as the 
best form of government in the commonwealth, as well as in the 
church." X 

Such were the free and equal principles in land and government, 
in religious and civil things, upon v/hich the Providence colony was 
founded. 

" It is most probable (says Governor Hopkins in his History of 
Providcnce§) the first settlers did not bring their wives and families 
with them at their first coming, and that they were not removed to 
Providence until sometime in the year 1637, for we have heard by 
tradition, and I believe truly, that the first male child born there, 
was Mr. Williams's eldest son, and whom he for that reason named 



* Knowles, p. 2GG. 

t Callender's Century Sermon, p. 17. 

t Savage's Winthrop, vol. 1, p. 135, note I. 

§Mass. Hist. Coll. second aeries, vol. 9, p. 173. 



Providence ; and this child appears by the records to have been 
born in the month of September, 1638." 

The year after the settlement of Providence, occurred the Pequod 
war. The services of Roger Williams, in preventing a union be- 
tween the Pcquods and Narragansetts, and in attaching the latter 
to the English, in this war, were of vital importance to the colonies 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut. What hazards he incurred to 
accomplish this, are best told in his own words, in his very interest- 
ing letter to Major Mason, of Connecticut, the hero of this war, from 
which we have already had occasion to make several extracts. 
He says: "When the next year after my banishment, the Lord 
drew the bow of the Pequod war against the country, in which, sir, 
the Lord made yourself, with others, a blessed instrument of peace 
to all New-England, I had my share of service to the whole land 
in that Pequod business, inferior to very k\w that acted ; for 

1. " Upon lettnrs received from the Governor and Council at Bos- 
ton, requesting me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors to 
break and hinder the league labored for by the Pequods, against 
the Mohegans, and Pequods against the English, (excusing the not 
sending of company and supplies by the haste of the business,) the 
Lord helped me immediately to put my life into my hand, and, 
scarce acquainting my wife, to ship myself, all alone, in a poor 
canoe, and to cut through a stormy wind, with great seas, every 
minute in hazard of life, to the Sachem's house." (Meaning the 
Narragansett Sachem, whose residence was near where Wickford 
now is.) 

2. " Three days and nights my business forced me to lodge and 
mix with the bloody Pequod ambassadors, whose hands and arms, 
methought, wreaked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered 
and massacred by them on Connecticut river, and from whom I 
could not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my own throat 
also." 

3. " When God wondrously preserved me, and helped to break 
to pieces the Pequods' negociation and design, and to make and pro- 
mote, and finish, by many travels and charges, the English league 
with the Narragansetts and Mohegans against the Pequods, and that 
the English forces marched up to the Narragansett country against 
the Pequods, I gladly entertained, at my house in Providence, the 
General Stoughton and his officers, and used my utmost care that 



28 

all liis oiTicers and soldiers should be well accommodated with us." 

4. " I marclied up with them to the Narragansett sachems, and 
brought my countrymen and the barbarians, sachems and captains, 
to a mutual confidence and complacence each in other. 

5. " Though I was ready to have marched further, yet upon 
agreement that I should keep at Providence, as an agent between 
the Bay and the army, I returned, and was interpreter and intelli- 
gencer, constantly receiving and sending letters to the Governor 
and Council at Boston, &c. These things, and ten times more, I 
could relate, to show that I am not a stranger to the Pcquod wars 
and lands, and possibly not far from the merit of a foot of land in 
either country which I have not." 

Massachusetts and Connecticut claimed the Pequod lands by right 
of conquest, in this war, a portion of these lands were said to 
be on the east of Paucatuck river, within the boundaries of the 
Rhode-Island charter ; to set in their true light these claims of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and what Rhode-Island had a right 
to claim in consequence of his services, this letter was written in 
1670, to Major Mason, who then was, or had been previously Dep- 
uty-Governor of Connecticut. 

When it is considered that the victories obtained over the Pe- 
quods gave peace to New-England for near forty years, and how 
different might have been the result if the league had not been 
broken between them and the Narragansetts, we may perceive the 
importance of these services of Mr. Williams to New-England. 
We regret to learn, from this same letter, that, though they were 
duly appreciated by the worthy Governor Winthrop, that it was 
not even in his power to cause them to be properly acknowledged 
and rewarded. Mr. Williams states that, on account of these ser- 
vices, Grov. Winthrop " and some other of the Council motioned, and 
it was debated, whether or no he had not merited, not only to be 
recalled from banishment, but also to be honored with some remark 
of favor ;" and adds, " It is known who hindered, who never pro- 
moted the liberty of other men's consciences." The person, here 
alluded to, is supposed to be Mr. Dudlej', who in 1634 was Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts. We perceive here another illustration of 
the sad truth, how much easier it is to do evil than good, and that 
men are more ready to listen to the counsels of intolerance and 
fanaticism, than to the voice of liberality and gratitude. 



29 

Within a i'cw months after these services were rendered, an or- 
der was passed, by the General Court of Massachusetts, by which 
all the inhabitants of Providence, who came within the Mas- 
sachusetts jurisdiction, were liable to be arrested and taken be- 
fore a magistrate, and unless they abjured the cliarge which was 
contained in a letter written by their fellow. citizen, John Greene, 
were to be sent home, not to return wilhin the Massachusetts juris- 
diction, on pain of imprisonment. CJreene had been imprisoned and 
fined in Massachusetts, for saying that the magistrates had usurped 
the power of Christ, and had persecuted Roger WiUiams. He had 
been induced to retract this saying to escape the fine and further 
imprisonment. On his return to Providence he wrote a letter to 
the magistrates repeating the offence, and it being supposed tliat 
the inhabitants of Providence were of the same mind, this order 
was passed to prevent tlieir ingress into the Massachusetts territory. 
The inhabitants of Providence were thus subjected to many incon- 
veniences, being in a great degree dependent, for many of the nec- 
essaries, and most of the comforts of life, upon their intercourse with 
Massachusetts. 

The banishment of Roger Williams did not secure the peace of 
the Massachusetts church. In August, 1637, a synod was holden 
at Newtown, now Cambridge, in which eighty.ttco heretical opinions 
were condemned, and Mr. Cotton himself was in some danger. He 
however made his peace with tlie Ciiurch ; but some of those who 
supposed that they were receivijig his doctrine were ultimately 
banished. The dissatisfaction produced, in others, by the proceed- 
ings of the synod, and the court, caused the settlement of Aquetneck, 
afterwards named Rhode-Island. It was proposed by Mr. John 
Clark, a learned physician of Boston, to some of his friends, in the 
minority in these disputes, that for peace sake, and to enjoy the 
freedom of their consciences, they should remove from Massachu- 
setts, and he was requested to seek out a place. In consequence 
of the heat of the preceding summer they went north, into what is 
now New-Hampshire ; but the coldness of the following winter, in- 
duced them to emigrate the next spring to the south, and some of 
the company, whilst their vessel was passing about Cape Cod, con- 
cluded to pass over land, having Long-Island and Delaware Bay 
in their view, as a place of settlement. 



30 

Thoy camo to Providence, and by the advice of I\Ir. Williams, 
their attention v/as turned towards Sowames, now a part of Barring- 
ton, and Aquetneck, but, as they doubted whether these places were 
not in the Plymouth jurisdiction, Mr. Williams accompanied Mr. 
Clark, and two others, to Plymouth, to make inquiry. Sowames 
was claimed as within the Plymouth patent, " but they were advised 
to settle at Aquetneck ; and promised (by the Plymouth colony.) to 
be looked on as free, and to be treated and assisted as loving neigh- 
bors." Such is the narrative of this matter, substantially, as given 
by Clark, and nearly in his own words.* They concluded to follow 
this advice, and made a most fortunate location in regard to soil, cli- 
mate and situation. By the advice and assistance of Mr. Williams, 
thev obtained a deed of the island from Canonicus and Miantinomo, 
which was dated on the 24th of March, 1638, new style, and was 
witnessed by Roger Williams, and Randall Holden. In this deed 
these Sachems claim the right to sell this island, in the words of the 
deed, " by virtue of our general command of ti)is bay, as also the 
particular subjecting of the dead Sachems of Aquetneck and Kitack- 
amuckqut themselves, and land unto us." The island was granted 
to "Mr. Coddington and his friends xiniled with him,'^ for forty fath- 
oms of white beads. 

And here it is but justice to the memory of Roger Wil- 
liams, and of another distinguished man whom he mentions, to 
give, in his words, what he calls " the rise and bottom of the 
planting of Pv.hode-Island." In a letter, written in 1658, he says, 
"I have acknowledged (and have and shall endeavor to maintain) 
the rights and properties of every inhabitant of Rhode-Island in 
peace ; yet, since there is so much sound and noise of purchase and 
purchasers, I judge it not unseasonable to declare the rise and bot- 
tom of the planting of Rhode-Island in the fountain of it. It was 
not price nor money that could have purchased Rhode-Island. 
Rhode-Island was obtained by love ; by the love and favor which 
that honorable gentleman, Sir Henry Vane, and myself, had with 
that great Sachem, Miantinomo, about the league which I procured 
between the Massachusetts English, &c. and the Narragansetts, in 
the Pequod war. It is true I advised a gratuity to be presented to 
the Sachem and the natives ; and because Mr. Coddington and the 
rest of my loving countrymen were to inhabit the place, and to be 

* Callendcr's Century Sermon, pp. 29, 30. 



31 

at the charge oftlic gratuities, I drew up a writing in Mr. Codding. 
ton's name, and in the names of such of my loving countrymen as 
came up with him, and put it into as sure a form as I could at that 
time, (amongst the Indians,) for the henefit and assurance of the 
present and future inhahitants of the island. This I mention, tliat 
as that truly nobio Sir Henry Vane hath been so great an instru- 
ment, in the hand of God, for procuring of this island from the bai-- 
barians, as also for procuring pud confirming of the charter, so it 
may by all due tliankful acknowledgment be remembered and re- 
corded of us and ours, which reap and enjoy the sweet fruits of so 
great benefits, and such unheard of liberties among us."* 

Sir Henry Vane was Governor of Massachusetts, when Mr. 
Williams procured the league he thus speaks of. Sir Henry Vane, 
also, was '• in the same condemnation," as an Antinomian heretic, 
with the settlers of this island ; though not personally proceeded 
against, yet on this account he was not re-chosen Governor, and 
not long afterwards left the colony of Massachusetts ; he felt, no 
doubt, therefore, a strong interest in favor of the emigrants to 
Rhode-Island. 

Sir Henry Vane, in 1G43-4, was one of the Commissioners of 
Plantations, who, with the Earl of Warwick, granted the first char- 
ter to our State, by the authority of Parliament ; and to tlie aid 
which he afforded Mr. Williams in procuring this charter, the latter 
here alludes. He speaks not only of the procuring, but of the con- 
firming of this charter, of which we shall have occasion to speak. 

The colonists of Aqiietneck, before they obtained tliis deed from 
the Narragansett Sachems, but probably not before the promise of 
the same, formed themselves into a political association by subscrib- 
ing the following compact, dated March 7, 1637-8. " We whose 
names are underwritten, do swear solemnly in the presence of Je- 
hovah, to incorporate ourselves into a body politic, and as he shall 
help us, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and to all those 
most perfect and absolute laws of his, given us in liis holy word of 
truth, to be guided and judged thereby." This was signed by Wil- 
Ham Coddington, John Clarke, and seventeen others.f This form 

* Backus, vol. 1, p. 91. 

t Those who signed this act of incoi'poralion were, William Goddiiiglon, 
John Clarke, William Hutchinson, John Coggcshall, William Aspinwall, 



32 

of a body politic was certainly objectionable, as uniting civil with 
religious things, and shows that though the settlers of the island 
came there to enjoy liberty of conscience, that they were not, at this 
time, so well informed as to the best manner of preserving this lib- 
erty as the colony of Roger Williams, whose compact, as we have 
seen, extended only to civil things. 

On the samcj day they elected William Coddington, their chief 
and sole magistrate, by the title of Judge, which is thus recorded : 
" We that are freemen incorporate of this bodie politick, do elect 
and constitute William Coddington, Esq. a Judge amongst us, and 
do covenant to yield all due honor unto him according to the Icuves 
of God, and so far as in us lyes, to maintain the honor and privi- 
leges of his place, which shall hereafter be ratified according unto 
God, the Lord helping us so to do ;" which is attested by " William 
Aspinwall, Scc'y." In the official engagement of William Cod- 
dington, he covenanted "to do justice and judgment impartially, ac- 
cording to the laws of God, and to maintain the fundamental rights 
and privileges of this body politic, which shall hereafter be ratified 
according unto God, the Lord helping me so to do." 

This was a dangerous power to place in the hands of one man, 
with no more definite rule to guide him in reference to offences and 
their punishment. And it also vested a power in the judge, over all 
things contained in that book, which is the Christian's rule of faith 
and practice. It in truth established a theocracy, and delegated to 
one man that power, which can only, with safety, be trusted to God. 
in about eleven months afterwards, (Feb. 2, 1639, N. S.) three el- 
ders were chosen, viz. Nicholas Easton, John Coggeshall and Wil- 
liam Brenton," '' to assist the judge in the execution of justice and 
judgment, for the regulating and ordering of all offences, and of. 
fenders, for draiving up and determining of all such rules and laws 
as should be according to God.'''' 

To prevent the improper exercise of this power, there was the 
following provision : " It is agreed and consented unto, that the 
judge, with the elders, shall be accountable unto the body once eve- 
ry quarter of the year, (when as the body shall be assembled,) of 

Samuel Wilborc, John Porter, Edward Hutchinson, Jr. John Saudford, 
Thomas Savage, William Dyer, William Frccbornc, Philip Sherman, John 
Walker, Richard Carder, William Baulatone, Edward Hutchinaon, Sen. 
Henry Bull, Randall Holden. 



all such cases, actions and rules, which have passed through their 
hands, by them to be scanned and weighed by the word of Christ ; 
and if by the body, or any of them, the Lord shall be pleased to 
dispense light to the contrary of what, by the judge and elders, hath 
been determined formally, that then and there it shall be repealed, 
as the act of the body ; and if it beotherways,that then it shall stand 
till farther light concerning it, for the present to be according to 
God and the tender care of indulgent fathers." Here was still the 
same defect as at first, in not separating civil from religious things, 
though more care was taken to guard against the abuse of this pow- 
er, by which the legislative, executive and judicial powers, were, for 
a lime, thus vested in the judge and elders. 

On the 16th March, 1641-2, this form of theocracy was laid aside; 
it was then agreed and declared that this government was " a de- 
mocracy, or popular government," and that the power to make laws 
for their government, and to depute ministers to execute them, was 
" in the body of freemen orderly assembled, or a major part of them." 
At this time was passed their first law securing the liberty of con- 
science, in these words : " It is further ordered, by the authority of 
this present court, that none be acounted a delinquent for doctrine, 
provided it be not directly repugnant to the government or laws es- 
tablished." And at the next court, 17th Sept. 1642, it was ordered, 
" that the law of the last court, made concerning liberty of conscience 
in point of doctrine, be perpetuated." 

The north end of the island was first settled, which was then called 
Pocasset, afterwards Portsmouth. Mr. William Coddington, the chief, 
and at first, the only magistrate in the colony, came over with Gov. 
Winthrop in 1630, being then an assistant in the Massachusetts gov- 
ernment ; he continued to hold this office from that time until 1637, 
when he became dissatisfied with the proceedings of the general 
court in relation to Mrs. Hutchinson and her adherents. He be- 
longed, therefore, to the court which passed the sentence of banish- 
ment against Mr. Williams, and for aught that appears, approved 
thereof, and it does not appear, that, in 1637, he denied the power 
of the magistrates in religious things, though he was dissatisfied with 
their judgment. It is not probable that he was dissatisfied with the 
model of the Massachusetts government, and this may account for 
the fact that the one under which he was thus appointed the only 
magistrate, so much resembled it in its theocratical features. Cod- 

E 



34 

dington is said to have been one of the richest merchants in Boston, 
and that he built the first brick house there ; his weahh and the 
high station he had held in the Massachusetts government, had, no 
doubt, their influence in procuring him the power which was grant- 
ed him by the Rhode-Island colony, and in moulding their first form 
of government. 

John Coggeshall, who was appointed one of the three elders, " was 
(says the able editor of Winthrop's Journal) a gentleman of high 
consideration, represented Boston in the first, second, third, sixth^ 
seventh, eighth and ninth courts. He was elected for the twelfth, 
but with Asjnnwall, was dismissed from being a member, for affirm- 
ing that Wheelwright was innocent, and that he was persecuted for 
the truth." 

William Aspinwall, here mentioned, Avas the first secretary of the 
Rhode-Island colony ; he was banished by the general court of Mas- 
sachusetts, but in 1642, returned and made his peace.* 

On the 28th April, 1639, five of the original purchasers of the 
island, and four of the after comers, agreed " to propagate a planta- 
tion in the midst of the island, or elsewhere." f 

They formed their plantation at the southwest end of the island, 
and on the sixteenth of May following it was called Newport. The 
first house built there was built by Nicholas EaSton and sons. 

In March, 1640, the plantation of Pocasset was ordered to be 
called Portsmouth ; and then it was ordered that the Chief Mag- 

* Winthrop, vol. 2, p. G3. In the proceedings of the judge and elders of 
the Rhode-Island colony on the 7th of February, 1638-9, is the following re- 
cord : "Mr. Aspinwall being a suspected person for sedition against the state, 
it was thought meet that a stay of the building of his boat should be made, 
whereupon the workman was forbidden to proceed any farther." 

t The following is a copy of the agreement : 
" On the 28th of the second month, 1639, 
" It is agreed, 
"By us whose hands are underwritten, to propagate a plantation in the 
midst of the island or elsewhere, and do engage ourselves to bear equal charge 
answerable to our strengtli and estates in common, and that our determina- 
tion shall be by major voice of Judges and Elders, the Judge to have a double 
voice. 

"Wra. Coddington, Judge; Nicholas Easton, John Coggeshall, Wm. 
Brenton, Elders; John Clarke, Jeremy Clark, Tliomas Hazard, Henry Bull ; 
Wm. Dyre, Secretary. 



35 

istrate of the island should be called Governor, the next Deputy- 
Governor, and the rest of the magistrates Assistants ; that the Gov- 
ernor and two Assistants should be chosen in one town, and the 
Deputy-Governor and two other Assistants in the other town. Mr. 
William Coddington was chosen Governor for this year, "or till a 
new be chosen," and Mr. William Brenton, Deputy-Governor ; 
Nicholas Easton, John Coggeshall, William Hutchinson, and John 
Porter, Assistants. 

On the IGth March, 1041-2, at the General Court of the free- 
men, (fifty-eight being present and their names recorded,) it was 
declared that their government was a democracy, and then was 
passed the ordinance in favor of liberty of conscience, as has been 
mentioned. 

In September, 1642, a Committee was appointed to consult about 
the procuring of a patent for the island, and to write to Sir Henry 
Vane upon the subject. 

In March, 1644, it was ordered that the island should be called 
the isle of Rhodes, or Rhode-Island. 

The fourth town, of the Narragansett plantations, in the order of 
time, is Warwick. This settlement began in January, 1642-3. 
Its history is intimately connected with Massachusetts, and consti- 
tutes some of the most melancholy pages of her histoi-y. 

About four years after the settlement of Providence, some of the 
proprietors removed to the lands on the Pawtuxet. To this settle, 
ment came Samuel Gorton, from Rhode-Island. All the settlements 
on the Narragansett Bay, being formed originally by voluntary 
associations, and their political obligations resting only in mutual 
covenant, without any authority from the mother country to make 
laws to punish their violation, doubts arose which rendered it diffi- 
cult to preserve the peace and to administer justice. When all 
were disposed to submit to the determination of those who were 
appointed to administer justice, between man and man, all went 
well ; but it was soon found that a government of more energy was 
required. Some of the inhabitants of Pawtuxet, in November, 
1641, complained to Massachusetts of Samuel Gorton and others, 
and desired advice and assistance. Massachusetts declined assist- 
ance, or advice, unless they would submit themselves to her juris- 
diction, or that of Plymouth. This they were then not prepared to 
do. In 1642, four of them, did so, and then Massachusetts took 



36 

cognizance of their complaints, and sent their orders to Gorton and 
others. If Massachusetts had not been very desirous of extending 
her limits to the Narraganset Bay, and perhaps of crushing the set- 
tlement which she, originally, endeavored to prevent, she must have 
seen that she was here exercising most unwarrantable authority. 
All her authority, over Englishmen, was derived from her patent, 
and within her territorial jurisdiction. To attempt to go beyond 
this, was to set herself up as the sovereign of the country ; but she 
herself owed allegiance and subjection to the king of England, and 
Gorton, and his associates, were, according to the laws of England, 
within the territory and under the protection of this king, and could 
not be made subject to her but by the authority of their common 
sovereign. To attempt therefore to derive this authority from the 
submission of the four Pawtuxet men, who had no right to subject 
themselves and their lands, much less to subject Gorton to the Mas- 
sachusetts jurisdiction, was a pretence which they might have used 
to blind others, but we can hardly think was sufficient to blind 
themselves. Governor Winthrop, however, betrays the secret. 
They had cast their eyes upon their neighbor's vineyard, and though 
the sin of covetousness was well understood, yet it was easy to hide 
it under a desire to do justice, if not to root out all heretics from the 
land. The words of Winthrop are remarkable, and though few, 
are not the less significant. After narrating the submission of these 
four men and their lands to Massachusetts, and their receiving them 
under their govei'nment and protection, he adds : " This we did 
partly to rescue these men from unjust violence and parlly to draw 
in the rest in those parts, either under ourselves or Plymouth, who 
now lived under no government, but grew very offensive, and the 
place was likely to be of use to us, especially if we should have oc- 
casion of sending out against any Indians of Narragansett, and like- 
wise for an outlet into the Narragansett bay, and seeing it came 
%oithout our seeking, and would be no charge to us, we thought it 
not wisdom to let it slip.^'* Had they not invited these men to put 
themselves under their jurisdiction, and refused them their advice, as 
good neighbors, unless they did so, how then could it be said " it 
came loithout our seeking ?" 

* Winthrop, vol. 2, p. 84. 



S7 

This act of the Pawtuxet men, was in violation of tlicir covenant 
with Roger Williams and his associates, by which they agreed to 
submit to the majority of the inhabitants of Providence ; upon this 
condition their lands were granted to them, and they were admitted 
into the town fellowship. In the second year of the Providence 
plantation, it was ordained, " that no man sell his field or his lot 
granted in our liberties, to any person but to an inhabitant, without 
the consent of the town." The attempt, therefore, to subject their 
lands to a foreign jurisdiction, was virtually a forfeiture of them, 
and of course conveyed no legal or equitable right to Massachusetts. 

Gorton, and his associates, viewed this order of Massachusetts as 
unwarrantable, but thought it jirudent to remove from the neigh- 
borhood of their accusers and further from the growing and grasp, 
ing colony of Massachusetts. They moved south of the Pawtuxet 
river, and on the 12th of January, 1642-3, purchased Shawomet of 
Miantinomo the chief Sachem, Pumham the petty Sachem having 
signed the deed. The conveyance is from Miantinomo as " chief 
Sachem of the Narragansett," and says that it " was sold and pos- 
session of it given to the persons therein mentioned, with the free 
and joint consent of the present inhabitants, being natives, as it ap- 
pears by their hands hereunto annexed." The name of two other 
natives appear to the deed, besides Pumham's.* 

It was not so easy to escape from the power of Massachusetts. 
Through the instrumentality of those, of Pawtuxet, who had en- 
deavored to subject Gorton and his associates to her authority, 
Pumham was induced, with Saccononoco, who claimed to be Sachem 
of Pawtuxet, to go to Boston and submit themselves and their lands 
to Massachusetts. Pumham alleged that he was compelled by Mian- 
tinomo to sign the deed, that he had refused to receive any part of 
the price, and that he was an independent Sachem and not subject 
to Miantinomo. Pumham then preferred complaints against Gor- 
ton and his associates, upon which they were summoned to answer 
at Boston, by a warrant dated the 12th September, 1643. 

Here we behold a further assumption of power — the right to de- 
termine the prerogatives and powers of an independent native prince 

* The first purchasers of Warwick were Randall Houldcn, Jolin Greene, 
John AVeeks, Francis Weston, Samuel Gorton, Richard Waterman, John 
Warner, Richard Carder, Samson Shotton, Robert Potter, William Wuddall. 



38 

in relation to liis lands, and the authority he claimed over inferior 
Sachems ; and the right to determine the facts in relation to this 
deed, which conferred at least o. jjrima facie title in fellow-subjects, 
so far as the rights of the natives were concerned, who had the 
same right to buy land of the natives, as Massachusetts had to de- 
rive jurisdiction from them. 

Massachusetts undertook to decide all these points, and decided 
Xhem o^ course in her oivn favor. Upon this decision, founded in 
usurpation, she claimed the right to summon Gorton and his asso- 
ciates to her bar, and, the summons not being obeyed, to send after 
them an armed force. That they were not called upon to answer 
to the mother country, for the murder of her subjects, was not 
owing to their prudence, or forbearance, but to the merciful inter- 
position of a preserving providence. 

We forbear to detail the perfidy by which Gorton, and his com- 
pany, were made prisoners of war ; the destruction of their proper- 
ty ; the suffering and dispersion of their families ; their imprison, 
ment at Boston for trial ; the manner in which the people and mag- 
istrates were addressed, previously to their trial, from the pulpit, to 
induce them to take away their lives, fearing too much lenity might 
be shown them ; the apprehending them on one set of charges, to 
give color to their arrest, and without trying them for these, charg- 
ing them with blasphemous and heretical opinions, which they denied; 
their narrow escape, with their lives, by a majority of ii<;o votes, be- 
ing reserved for a punishment in chains and labor, resembling Alge- 
rine servitude ; and their final discharge and banishment, lest the 
people should be corrupted by their heresies, with a prohibition not 
to occupy their lands at Shawomet, under pain of death. Their sto- 
ry has filled a volume,* and is too full of painful emotions to be here 
dwelt upon. Happily they escaped, and found protectors in Eng- 
land, powerful enough to rescue them from oppression ; they re- 
turned to their plantation, and, in testimony of their gratitude to the 
noble earl who had interposed in their behalf, they called it War- 
wick. 

Gorton lived down many of the calumnies which had been heaped 
on him ; held several important offices in town and colony ; and en- 
joyed the confidence of his fellovv-citizens, at Warwick, until his 

* Coll. R. I. Hist. Society, vol. 2. 



39 

death, in 1677. What his peculiar rehgious opinions were, it is noir 
difficult to determine ; that they were much misrepresented we must 
believe, if we credit his denial of many that were imputed to hiai ;* 
but his religious writings are among tlie most mystical of those times. 
Whatever were his opinions, he might have been safely left to en- 
joy them in the wilderness, and those letters, so offensive to Massa- 
chusetts, would never have been written, but for her attempt to ex- 
tend her power beyond her jurisdiction. 

Many of the descendants of those persecuted men now enjoy, un- 
der happier auspices, the land of their fathers, and when the blood 
of Massachusetts was shed at Lexington, and her capital in posses- 
sion of the enemy, a descendant of one of them,f at the head of his 
fellow-citizens, hastened to her relief, and in the deadly controversy 
which ensued, rendered those services, which, in the estimation of 
his country, were second only to those of Washington. 

And here it becomes us to pay a passing tribute to the memory 
of a native prince, who was the early, and while he lived, the con- 
stant friend of this colony. And we are the more required to hold 
his memory in grateful recollection, as it is most probable this 
friendship cost him his life. I refer to Miantinomo, the Chief Sa- 
chem of the Narragansetts, who, with his uncle Canonicus, granted 
to Roger Wilhams his lands, to William Coddington and his friends 
the beautiful island of Aquetneck, and who granted Shawomet to 
Gorton and his associates ; whom Roger Williams calls his " kind 
friend^'' and who assured him that " it should not be land he should 
want." This prince was kind, generous, noble, and of shrewd un- 
derstanding. Being summoned, in 1642, before the Massachusetts 
Court, to clear himself from those suspicions of hostility to the Eng- 
hsh, of which he had been accused by his inveterate enemy, Uncas, 
his deportment was such as became a prince, and one conscious of 
innocence. He " would not speak of any business at any time," 
says Winthrop, " before some of his Counsellors were present, al- 
leging that he would have them present, that they might bear wit- 
ness with him, at his return home, of all his sayings. In all his an- 
swers he was very deliberate, and showed good understanding in 
the principles of justice, and equity and ingenuity withal. He de- 



* See 2d vol. R. I. Hist. Coll. App. No. 11, p. 21G. 
t Nathaniel Greene. 



40 

niandccl that liis accusers might be brought forth, to the end that if 
they could not make good what tliey had charged him with, they 
might suffer what he was worthy of, and must have expected if he 
had been found guilty, viz.: death." He " offered to meet Uncas 
at Boston, and prove to his face his treachery against the English." 
" We spent," says Winthrop, " the better part of two days in treat- 
ing with him, and in conclusion he did accommodate himself to us 
to our satisfaction." 

The account which Roger Williams gave of the harmony which 
prevailed in the Narragansett government, shows the character of 
Miantinomo in a very favorable light. 

" Their government, (says Williams, in his Key, chap. 22, p. 
120,) is monarchical ; yet at present the chiefest government in the 
country is divided between a younger Sachim, Miantunnomo, and 
an elder Sachim, Canaunicus, of about fourscore years old, this 
young man's uncle ; and their agreement in the government is re- 
markable. The old Sachim will not be offended at what the young 
Sachim doth ; and the young Sachim will not doe what hee con- 
ceives will displease his uncle." How few civilized kings and 
princes, but would suffer from comparison with these. The Turk 
" bears no brother near the throne," and the ancient history of 
christian kings, does not abound with instances of more moderated 
ambition. 

In 1643, Miantinomo took up arms in defence of a Sachem of 
Connecticut, a kinsman of his, with whom Uncas was at war. In 
an attack upon Uncas he was defeated, and " having on a coat of 
mail, was easily overtaken ; which two of his own captains per- 
ceiving, they laid hold on him and carried him to Uncas, hoping to 
procure their own pardon, who immediately slew them both ; and 
Miantinomo standing mute, (disdaining to beg for his life,) Uncas 
demanded of him why he would not speak. " If you had taken 
me," said he, "I would have besought you for my life." Gorton, 
hearing of the capture of Miantinomo, wrote Uncas to give him his 
liberty, and threatened him with the power of the English if he did 
not ; " ho wrote the letter," says Winthrop, " in the name of the 
Governor of Massachusetts." " Upon this," says Winthrop, " On- 
kus carried Miantunnomoh to Hartford, to take advice of the magis- 
trates there, and, at Miantunnomoh's earnest entreaty, he left him 
with them, yet as a prisoner. They kept him under guard, but 



41 

used liim very courteously, and so lie continued till the commission- 
ers of the United Colonies met at Boston, who, taking into serious 
consideration what was safest and best to be done, were all of opin- 
ion that it woidd not be safe to set him at liberty, neither had we 
sufficient ground for us to put him to death. In this difficulty we 
called in five of the elders, (it being in the time of the general as- 
semblyofthe elders,) and propounding the case to them, they all 
agreed tliat he ought to he put to death."* In pursuance of this ad- 
vice, Miantonomo was delivered to Uncas, with orders to put him to 
death, so soon as he came within his jurisdiction — these orders were 
faithfully obeyed, "two English being sent" to witness their execu- 
tion ! Such was the advice of those who should have been ministers 
of peace and mercy ! Surely they " knew not what manner of spirit 
they were of." It has been suggested that this advice would not 
have been given, but for the late proceedings against Gorton and his 
associates, who purchased their land of Miantinomo, and who was, 
no doubt, disposed to aid them against the claims and pretences of 
Pumham, his inferior sachem. The interference of Gorton, also, in 
his behalf, was most unfortunate, as it probably produced an appeal 
to the commissioners, by Uncas, for advice, who might, otherwise, 
have treated with the Narragansetts for the ransom of their chief, as 
they said he had done, and received a part of the price. 

It was most unfortunate, also, in its tendency to produce the ad- 
vice which was so fatal to his friends. The coat of mail, it is said, 
was lent Miantinomo by Gorton, which proved the cause of his 
captivity — and the letter designed for his deliverance, probably 
caused his death. What an illustration of the truth of the maxim, 
Save us from our friends ! This was no justification for those who 
ought to have remembered the friendship and services of Miantino- 
mo in the time of their utmost need, when the Pequods were deter- 
mined on their extermination, and, to induce Miantinomo to join 
them, prophesied, (as proved too true,) that otherwise he would 
only be the last to he devoured. They ought to have remem- 
bered the open and ingenuous manner in which, the year before, 
conscious of his innocence, and relying upon their justice, contrary 
to the advice of his friends, he trusted himself to their keeping, and 

*Winthrop, vol. 2, p. 131. 
F 



42 

removed all their suspicions by his wisdom and truth. They ouglit 
to have suspected the secret source whence issued those bloody 
counsels, in opposition to all their original notions of justice ; but 
how could they suspect — tantcene animis coclestlbus irczl — How could 
they suspect that such motives could dwell " in heavenly minds ?" 

We cannot better close this tribute to the memory of this illustri- 
ous chief, than in these words of Governor Hopkins, which have 
that eloquence and truth which come warm from the heart : — 
" This was the end of Myantonomo, the most potent Indian prince 
the people of New-England had ever any concern with ; and this 
was the reward he received for assisting them seven years before, 
in their war with the Pequots. Surely a Rhode-Island man may 
be permitted to mourn his unhappy fate, and drop a tear on the 
ashes of Myantonomo, who, with his uncle Canonicus, were the best 
friends and greatest benefactors the colon}^ ever had. They kind- 
ly received, fed, and protected the first settlers of it, when they 
were in distress, and were strangers and exiles, and all mankind 
else were their enemies ; and by this kindness to them, drew upon 
themselves the resentment of the neighboring colonies, and hastened 
the untimely end of the young king." 

Where was the voice of Roger Williams that it was not raised 
in behalf of his friend ? He was not here, and, if he had been, his 
influence would probably have been exerted in vain. He had sail- 
ed for England, on the voyage during which he wrote the Key to 
the Indian Language, and might have been penning the testimony 
which he therein gives to the harmonious government of Canonicus 
and Miantinomo, when this tragedy was enacting. 

How much English blood was shed, in Philip's war, by the Nar- 
ragansetts, to atone for the murder of their chief, is known only to 
Him who knows all hearts ; but such conduct, on the part of the 
United Colonies, was fitted to unite against them those who had " not 
stained their hands with any English blood, neither in open hostil- 
ities nor secret murders, as both Pequods and Long-Islanders did, 
and Mohegans also, in the Pequod wars," according to the testimony 
of Roger Williams^ written eleven years after this, to the General 
Court of Massachusetts. And, in this letter, he says : " The Nar- 
ragansetts, as they were the first, so they have been long confed- 
erates with you ; they have been true, in all the Pequod wars, to 



43 

you. They occasioned the Mohcgans to conic in, too, and so oc- 
casioned the Pequods downfall." * 

■ In 1643, the four colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connect- 
icut, and New. Haven, formed a union, for offence and defence, and 
mutual assistance and advice ; they were called the United Colonies 
of New-England. Rhode-Island petitioned to be admitted a member 
of the confederacy, but was refused unless she would submit to the 
jurisdiction of Plymouth, and cease to be a separate colony. f 

In the summer of 1G43, Pi,oger Williams sailed for England, to 
procure a Charter which might unite the Narragansett colonics un- 
der one government, protect them from the ambition of their neigh- 
bors, and enable them, by the authority of England, to administer 
justice among themselves. In taking passage for England, he had 
to go to New- Amsterdam, now New-York, then in possession of the 
Dutch, being still forbidden the territory of Massachusetts. At 
New-Amsterdam he was instrumental in negotiating a peace be- 
tween the Dutch and Long-Island Indians, who were at war, and 
was the means of blessing others, though subjected himself to incon- 
vcnience and danger. 

By the aid of Sir Henry Vane, a charter was procured from the 
Earl of Warwick, Governor-in-Chief, and Lord High Admiral, and 
from the Earl of Pembroke, and others. Commissioners, by the ordi- 
nance of Parliament, of the islands and plantations in America. Sir 
Henry Vane was one of these Commissioners. This charter is 
dated the 14th of March, 1643-4. 

By this charter the inhabitants of the towns of Providence, Ports- 
mouth, and Newport, were incorporated by the name of " The In- 
corporation of Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, in 
Neio-England, with power to rule themselves, and such others as 
should thereafter inhabit within any part of the tract of land men- 
tioned therein, by such a form of civil government, as by voluntary 
consent of all, or the greater part of them, they should find most 
suitable to their estate and condition." These were ample powers, 
and left them at perfect liberty to constitute such a form of govern- 
ment, and make such laws, as a majority saw fit, with but one 
wholesome restriction, that " said laws, constitutions, and punish- 
ments, should be conformable to the laws of England, so far as the 
nature and constitution of the place would admit." 

* Knowlee, p. 276. t Holmes' Annals, vol. 1, p. 3;77. 



44 

It has been objected that this charter, procured by Roger Wil- 
hams, contained no clause securing Uberty of conscience, as if here- 
in he had failed to estalish and perpetuate his great principle. This 
objection we think has been made without sufBcient consideration. 
The object of this charter was not to give liberty of conscience to 
the inhabitants, for they had it already, but to give them an author, 
ity for civil government. In his letter to Major Mason, Roger Wil- 
Hams says: "Considering (upon frequent exceptions against Provi- 
dence men) that we had no authority for civil government, 1 went 
purposely to England, and upon my report and petition, the Parlia- 
ment granted us a charter of government for these parts." But 
there was another reason which, probably, prevented Roger Wil- 
liams from inserting any thing in this charter respecting liberty of 
conscience. This liberty, according to his views, was not derived 
from man, but from God, which no charter or compact or human 
power could give, or rightfully, take away. To have put such a 
clause therefore into the charter, would have been admitting, tacitly, 
that it was derived from thence, and that the power which gives it may, 
expressly, or impliedly, take it away. This accounts for those very 
few, but significant words in the engagement signed by the new 
comers of Providence, by which they agreed to submit themselves 
to the authority of the majority — '• 07ili/ in civil things." The char- 
ter was granted for government only in civil things. The power 
given was to form a " civil government," and " to make and or- 
dain," not such laws and constitutions as they pleased, but "such 
civil laws and constitutions, «fcc."* Roger Williams therefore was 



* Extract from the Charter of 1643-4. — " Iii due consideration of the said 
premises, the said Robert, Earl of Warwick, Governor iu Chief, and Lord 
High Admiral of the said plantations, and the greater number of the said 
Commissioners, whose names and seals are here under written and subjoined, 
out of a desire to encourage the good beginnings of the said planters, do, by 
the authority of the aforesaid ordinance of the Lords and Conmions, give, &lc. 
to the aforesaid inhabitants of the towns of Providence, Portsmouth and New- 
port, a free and absolute charter of incorporation, to be known by the name 
of The Incorporation of ih"^ Providence Plantation" in the Narragansctt Bay, 
in NeicEngland. Together with full power and authority, to rule them- 
selves, and such others as shall hereafter inhabit within any part of the said 
tract of land, by such a form of civil government, as by voluntary consent of 
all, or the greater part of them, they shall find most suitable to their estate 
and coiulition ; and for that end, to make and ordain such civil laws and con- 



45 

not only true to his groat pi-inciplc, but to ihc form which he uccmcd 
originally most proper to secure it. 

If there arc any who deem these suggestions more ingenious than 
true, (and, on reflection, I think there will be but few,) to them I 
would say, that if the powers granted by tliis charter were not con- 
fined to civil, in contradistinction to j'cligious things, then all power 
was granted to the people to sjcure their own liberties, in this re- 
spect, as they thought best, and, if any provision was necessary, 
there was wisdom in allowing it to emanate from themselves, rather 
than from the i-noth3r country. 

Mr. Williams returned to America in September, 1044, bringing 
with him the Charter, and letters to the Massachusetts government, 
from their friends in England, recommending him to their friendly 
offices, and regretting the distance tlierc was between them. Mr. 
Williams was allowed to land at Boston, and pass through the Mas- 
sachusetts territories; but this letter produced no repeal of the pro- 
liibition, fox-bidding him, and all Providence men free liberty of in- 
gress and regress in her territories. Mr. Williams, on his return, 
was met at Seekonk, by his Providence friends, and escorted in 
their canoes, across the Pawtuckct, to his home in Providence, in 
testimony of their joy at his return, and in honor of his services. 
How pleasing must have been his reflections, as he contrasted the 
different circumstances under which he had crossed the same waters, 
in the summer of 1636 ! 

This charter bounded the colony of Providence Plantations north- 
ward and northeast by the patent of Massachusetts, east and south- 
east on Plymouth patent, south on the ocean, and west and north- 
west by the Pequod river and country. This included the territory 
Massachusetts had endeavored to obtain by the submission of Pum- 
liam, Saccononoco and the four Pawtuxct men, and lessened her hopes 
of getting a foothold on the Narragansett Bay. She therefore for- 
bid Mr. \Villiams and his associates from exercising authority under 
this charter, at Pawtuxet and Warwick. The government of Ply- 

slitutions, &c. as thcj, or (ke greater part of tlicin shall by free con"cnt agree 
unto." 

The Charter of 1G63, gave power to the Governor and Companj", "from 
time to time, to make, ordain, constitute or repeal such lawn, statutes, or- 
ders and ordinances, forms and ceremonies of government and magiatracy, 
as to them shall seem meet ; not repugnant to the lawa of England." 



4G 

iTioutli, also, sent one of their magistrates to Rhode-Island, forhidding 
the exercise of any authority there, claiming it to be within their 
jurisdiction ; and efforts were made in England, by the influence of 
these colonies, to procure the recall of the charter. These meas- 
ures of their neighbors, had, no doubt, a tendency to prevent the Nar- 
ragansett colonies from organizing a government immediately, under 
their charter ; it was not until the I9th of ?.Iay, 1C47, that the in- 
habitants met, at Portsmouth, and agreed on a form of government, 
and chose their magistrates, Warwick was then admitted into the 
association with the same privileges as Providence. The chief ma- 
gistrate was styled President, the first political President, it has been 
said, in America, and there were four assistants appointed, one from 
each town. John Coggeshall Avas chosen President ; Roger Wil- 
liams, Assistant for Providence ; John Sanford, Assistant for Ports- 
mouth ; William Coddington, Assistavit for Newport ; and Randall 
Molden, Assistant for Warwick. At this time a body of laws was 
agreed upon, and the laws of Olcron adopted for the benefit of the 
seamen on the island. A form of engagement was adopted, for all 
the inhabitants to subscribe, by which tb.ey pledged themselves to 
each other to maintain with their " utmost estates and strength,''' the 
liberties granted them by their charter, and the authority thereof, 
therein declaring their form of government to be "democratical ; that 
is to say, a government held by the free and voluntary consent of all, 
or a greater part of the free inhabitants." 

They enacted a body of laws ; after the preamble to the same, 
follows, what we should now call, a bill of rights, and some constitu- 
tional provisions ; but there was no provision in regard to the rights 
of conscience ; then comes the civil and criminal code, and some 
constitutional provisions ; but they contain nothing respecting relig- 
ion. To the whole is added the following declaration : " These are 
the laws that concern all men, and these arc the penalties for the 
transgression thereof, which by common consent are ratified and 
established throughout the whole colony ; and otherwise than thus 
what is herein forbidden, all men may walk as their consciences 
persuade them, every one in the name of his God. And let the 
lambs of the Most High walk, in tlus colony, without molestation, in 
the name of Jehovah, their God, for ever and ever." 

Those who examine this political and civil code, will find abun- 
dant reason to respect and admire the wisdom, piety, and liberality 



47 

of the fathers of this colony. They Lft the towr.s to take care of 
their particular concerns, exercising over thcni an executive, judicial 
and legislative power, very similar to that which our general gov- 
ernment exercises over the States. They established a General 
Court of trials for the whole colony, to be holdcn by the President 
and Assistants. The civil jurisdiction of this Court extended to 
matters of difference between town and town ; or between parties 
dwelling in two towns more remote ; to cases of the arrest of a man 
belonging to a neighbor colony ; and to cases of great importance, 
such as the common-council either of the town or towns should 
judge too weighty for a more private determining." We perceive, 
in most of these provisions, a strong analogy, and no doubt for the 
same reasons, to the Judicial power which by the Cor^stitution is 
vested in the Courts of the United States. 

A system so well adapted to preserve peace, at home and abroad, 
to prevent collisions among towns, to secure the administration of 
justice among themselves, and to the satisfaction of their neighbors, 
ought to have been attended with lasting and happy effects. 

The future historian of Rhode-Island will find that her troubles are 
not yet ended. Massachusetts and Plymouth persevered in their 
claims of jurisdiction, and the union which had been perfected in so 
much wisdom, was, in a few years, brolcen by an act of one of the 
principal men of the island, in violation of his engagement to maintain 
the charter, which he must have taken and subscribed, as an inhab- 
itant and as an officer ; having been chosen, at the first election, an 
Assistant under it. We refer to William Coddington, and to what 
was called Coddington's obstruction. The reasons for this act of 
his, rest now in conjecture ; and those which have been assigned to 
excuse or justify him, do neither. U trouble and divisions existed 
in the colony, this was not the way to remedy, but to increase them; 
and it is not the part of a good citizen, on account of his private 
grievances, to conspire against the established government, which 
he has solemnly engaged to support. But whatever were the 
reasons, the flict cannot be denied, that in the year 1650, this gen- 
tleman went to England, and, early in the next year, returned with 
a Commission, dated April 3d, 1651, appointing him Governor for 
life* of Rhode-Island, and the islands in the Narragansett Bay, with 
a Council of six to be appointed by himself. Thus was a monarchy, 

* Letter from Roger Williams to Mr. John Winthrop. Knowlcs, p. 242. 



in fact, introduced into this portion of the colony, in place of a dc 
mocracy, established by the act of the people. 

Portsmouth and Newport deemed it their duty to submit to Cod- 
dington's government, how willingly will soon appear. Providence 
and Warwick continued united under the charter. 

In October of this year (1651) nearly all the free inhabitants of 
Nev,-port, and forty-one of Portsmouth, appointed Mr. Clark, their 
agent, to go to England, to procure the repeal of Mr. Coddington's 
commission. Mr. Clark sailed for England the next month, with 
Roger Williams, who had been induced, by the solicitations of Pro- 
vidence and Warwick, to join Mr. Clark, in attempting to remove 
this obstruction. They sailed from Boston, after Mr. Williams had 
surmounted the obstructions that were there raised to his passage. 

Mr. Williams and iMr. Clark, having safely arrived in England, 
in the spring of 1G52, joined in a petition to the Council of State, 
praying that Mr. Coddington's Commission might be annulled, which 
was finally accomplished, after much opposition from various quar- 
ters, in October, 1652, and letters from the Council of State, to that 
effect, were sent to the Colony, and also confirming the Charter, by 
Mr. William Dyre. 

On the arrival of Mr. Dyre, a new difficulty occurred as to whom 
tlie letters should be delivered. Providence and Warwick, claim- 
intT to be the government, under the charter, required they should 
be delivered to them. Mr. Dyre thought otherwise, and called, by 
his own authority, a meeting of the free inhabitants at Portsmouth, 
declarino- that he should deliver the letters to those who should then 
and there assemble. The freemen of Providence and Warwick did 
not attend this meeting. It was attended by those of the island, who 
received the letters and orders of the Council, and organized a gov- 
ernment, Providence and Warwick still continuing their government, 
so that, in fact, there were two governments in the colony claiming 
under the same charter. Things continued in this state from March, 

1652, until August, 1654. In this interval however, viz : in May, 

1653, the towns on the island granted commissions to Mr. William 
Dyre, and Captain John Underbill, to cruise against the Dutch ; Eng- 
land and Holland being then at war. This gave great offence to 
Providence and Warwick, and in June following, they passed an 
order, that all who owned these commisions should have no liberty 
to act in the government, until they gave satisfaction to Providence 



49 

and Warwick. They sent a remonstrance to Newport and Ports- 
mouth, setting forth at length their objections to their proceedings, 
and deprecating the consequences of the commissions they had 
issued, saying " they may set all New-England on fire, the event 
of war being various and uncertain." 

Mr. Wilhams, hearing of the divisions in the colony, hastened 
home. He brought with him letters to the colony from Sir Henry 
Vane, reproving them for their dissensions, and suggesting a mode 
by which an union might be effected. Mr. Williams also, on his 
arrival, wrote a letter to Providence for the same purpose. By his 
influence, and the respect paid to the advice of their noble and con- 
stant friend, the mode which Sir Henry Vane advised was adopted, 
and a meeting of commissioners from all the towns was holden at 
Warwick, August 31, 1654, when articles of reunion were agreed 
upon, and the government under the charter, as at first, reorgan- 
ized, and an election ordered, at which Roger Williams was chosen 
President. 

Mr. Williams, as President of the Colony, wrote a letter to the 
government of Massachusetts, complaining of the licentiousness and 
anarchy which prevailed among those in this colony over whom 
they pretended to have jurisdiction. " The Indians (said he) which 
pretend your name at Warwick and Pawluxet, (yet live as barbar- 
ously if not more so than any in the whole colony,) please you to 
know their insolences upon ourselves and cattle are insufferable by 
English spirits." He adds : " Concerning four families at Paw- 
tuxet, may it please you to remember the two controversies they 
have long (under your name) maintained with us, to the constant 
obstructing of all order and authority amongst us. To obey his 
Highness's authority in this charter, they say they dare not for your 
sakec, though they live not by your laws, nor by your common 
charges nor ours, but evade both under color of your authority. 
Be pleased to consider how unsuitable it is for yourselves to be the 
obstructors of all orderly proceedings amongst us ; for I humbly 
appeal to your own wisdom and experience, how unlikely it is for 
a people to be compelled to order and common charges when oth- 
ers, in their bosoms, are by such seeming partiality exempted from 
both." 

We thus see that Massachusetts was one cause of those dissen- 
tions and divisions, in this colony, with which she was go ready to 

G 



50 

reproach us, and to attribute to tlie too great liberty of conscience 
allowed among us. In this letter also there was the following ap- 
peal : " I pray your equal and favorable reflection upon that your 
law which prohibits us to buy of you all means of our necessary 
defence of our lives and families, (yea in this most bloody and mas- 
sacreing time). We are informed that tickets have rarely been 
denied to any English of the country, yea, the barbarians (though 
notorious in lies) if they profess subjection, they are furnished ; 
only ourselves, by former and latter denial, seem to be devoted to 
the Indian shambles and massacres."* 

Mr. Williams having written again to the Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, was encouraged by him to come to their Assembly at 
Boston, which he did, and addressed them in a manner which pro. 
duced the effect he desired. 

Mr. Williams was chosen President again in 1756, and the diffi- 
culties with the Pawtuxet men were settled by arbitration, as pro- 
posed by Massachusetts, who relinquished all claim to authority 
over them, and they were admitted as freemen of this colony. 

In 1657, the Commissioners of the United Colonies, being in- 
formed (as they say) " that divers Quakers had arrived at Rhode- 
Island, and were entertained there, which they apprehended might 
prove dangerous to the colonies," wrote to the Governor of this 
colony, requesting that those that had been received might be re- 
moved, and their coming in future prohibited ; and to enforce their 
request, intimated that otherwise they might be compelled, to pre- 
serve themselves from the contagion of such a pest, to discontinue 
intercourse and trade with this colony. An answer to this letter 
was returned by the President, Benedict Arnold, and the four As. 
sistants, in which they say: "And as concerning these Quakers (so 
called) which are now among us, we have no law among us where- 
by to punish any for only declaring by words, &c. their minds and 
understanding concerning the things and ways of God as to salva. 
tion and an eternal condition," and then suggest that persecution 
only tended to increase the sect, and that they delighted to be per- 
secuted by civil powers, that by their patient sufferings they might 
gain adherents. In regard to their fear of contagion, they suggested 
there was less reason to apprehend danger, as they sent them out 

* Knowles, 286. 



51 

of the country as soon as tlicy came among tliem. Tliey stale, 
however, their determination to lay this matter before the next 
General Assembly, expressing a desire that all honest and fair 
commerce with them might be preserved. 

This letter from the United Colonies was laid before the General 
Court of Commissioners for the colony ; they wrote, in reply, stating 
the freedom enjoyed here, as in the letter of the President and As- 
sistants, and gave notice of their intention to write to their agent, in 
England, that he might present the matter unto the supreme author- 
ity, to crave their advice how they should conduct in respect to these 
people, without infringing on the freedom of conscience. 

The letter written to Mr. John Clarke, the agent, from the Court 
of Commissioners, shows how the threat contained in the letter from 
the United Colonies, was understood and appreciated. They say : 
" There is one clause of this letter, which plainly implies a threat, 
though covertly expressed, as their manner is, which we take to be 
this, that as themselves (as we conceive) have been much awed in 
point of their continued subjection to the state of England, lest in 
case they should decline, England might prohibit all trade with them, 
both in point of exportation, and importation of any commodities, 
which were an host sufficiently prevalent to subdue New-England, 
as not being able to subsist. Even so they seem secretly to threat- 
en us, by cutting us off from all commerce and trade with them, and 
thereby to disable us of any comfortable subsistence, being that the 
concourse of shipping, and so of all kinds of commodities, is univer- 
sally conversant amongst themselves, as also knowing that our- 
selves are not in a capacity to send out shipping of ourselves," &;c. 
They then request their agent, that, as in their letter to the United 
Colonies, they stated their intention to ask the advice of his high- 
ness and honorable council, that he " would have an eye and ear 
open" (to use their words) " in case our adversaries should seek to 
undermine us in our privileges granted unto us, and to plead our 
case in such sorte as we may not he compelled to exercise any civil 
power over men's consciences, so long as human orders in point of 
civility are not corrupted and violated, which our neighbors about us 
do freequently practice, whereof many of us have large experience, 
and do judge it to be no less than a point of absolute cruelty." 

There is no part of our early history which is more honorable to 
the fathers of this colony than this. It exhibits their wisdom, libe- 



52 

rality and firmness, in strong contrast with tlic spirit and conduct of 
the United Colonies. Here was a test of their principles ; they 
were tempted ; they were threatened ; but, though poor and weak, 
they resisted the temptation, and, at the hazard of losing the com- 
forts of life, clung to their principles ; and for whom ? not for thos3 
who had become members of their body politic, or for whose doc- 
trines they had any attachment, but for a new sect, that was then 
every where spoken against ! If it should be thought, as has been 
sometimes suggested, that the liberty of conscience here allowed, 
proceeded from the circumstances of the colony, rather than from 
principle, let this correspondence be perused, and such suggestions 
will be silenced forever. 

In looking over the list of Commissioners, six from each town, 
that formed the Court v/hich gave these instructions to their agent, 
we find the names of Roger Williams, from Providence, Obadiah 
Holmes, from Newport, and Samuel Gorton, of Warwick. Well 
might they say in speaking of the practice of their neighbors, 
" whereof many of us have large experience." And the agent, to 
whom they were writing, might have spoken of his own experience 
in this respect, he having been with Holmes in the same condemna- 
tion, tine, and imprisonment, though he was delivered from the cruel 
scourge by the ability and kindness of his friends. 

The restoration of Charles II., in 1660, caused the inhabitants of 
this colony to fear tiiat those rights which they had obtained from 
the Parliament, when at war with the father, would not be respect- 
ed by the son. And they luid reason to apprehend that what they 
had gained so much by the influence of Sir Plenry Vane, might be 
taken from them by a government which brought him to the scaf- 
fold. They had reason also to expect, that the same exertions 
which had been made by their neighbors to produce the recall of 
their Charter, would now be repeated, and with more success. 
They therefore adopted all those measures which prudence required, 
to guard against tliis calamity, to procure the favor of their new 
king, and a confirmation of their privileges. The king was pro- 
claimed at Warwick, in October, 1660, where the Assembly sat 
immediately after the news of the restoration arrived here, and the 
proclamation was " solemnized" by military parade and festivity, 
and ordered to be thus solemnized, on the 24th of that month, in 
the same manner, in every town in the colony. A new commission 



was issued to Mr. John Clarke, who was still in England, appointing 
him their agent for the preservation of their chartered rights and 
liberties. Three, from each town, were appointed a Committee to 
draw up an humble petition to his majesty; to correspond with their 
agent, and to do what seemed to them best to accomplish their 
wishes in this respect, and the sum of three liundred pounds was 
raised and placed at their disposal. 

This Committee were for Providence, William Field, Roger 
Williams, and Zach. Roads; for Portsmouth, William Baulston, 
John Roome, and John Portor ; for Newport, William Crenton, 
Benedict Arnold, and Joseph Torrey ; and for Warwick, John 
Greene, John Weeks, and Samuel Gorton, Senior. 

Fortunately for the colony, the new king was disposed, from dis. 
position and policy, to forget past animosities, and unite in himself 
the affection of all parties. And fortunately, also, about the time 
when the new Charter was granted, the king, from a desire to serve 
the Roman Catholics, to whom he was secretly attached, had, with 
his brother, the Duke of York, formed a plan, on pretence of easing 
the Protestant dissenters, for introducing a general toleration, that the 
Catholics might enjoy the free exercise of their religion, at least in 
private houses. 

This plan was defeated by the intolerance of Parliament ; but it 
would naturally render the king well disposed to grant the same 
toleration in the plantations, where the Catholics might resort, and, 
no doubt, well disposed him towards this little colony, which had 
anticipated his wishes, and served to counteract the adverse influence 
of our neighobrs, whose policy was so different. 

The new Charter was granted on the 8th July, 1663, and was 
received in Novembei', 1663, by the Court of Commissioners at 
Newport, " at a very great meeting and assembly of the freemen 
of the colony," says the record, and read in presence of all, and 
held up to the view of all, " with his majesty's royal stampe, and 
the royal seal." Thanks to the king — thanks to Lord Chancellor 
Clarendon — and thanks and a gratuity of one hundred pounds to 
Mr. Clarke, their agent, were unanimously voted ; and a gratuity 
of twenty -five pounds, besides his expenses from Boston, to Captain 
George Baxter, the bearer of the Charter, and the reader of it to 
the people on this occasion. 



54 

This Charter contained tlie clause in relation to liberty in relig- 
ious concernments, which has been so often repeated, and deservedly 
admired." 

The letters of Mr. Clarke which were also read to the people on 
this occasion, have unfortunately not been preserved. They no 
doubt contained valuable information in reference to the history of 
the charter. 

This charter remodelled the government ; changed the name of 
the chief magistrate from President to Governor ; created a Deputy. 
Governor ; increased the Assistants to ten, and vested the legisla- 
tive power in these and the deputies from the towns, to be called 
the General Assembly. The power to initiate laws, or to approve 
them, when proposed by the Court of Commissioners, was previ- 
ously vested in the towns, and exercised in their several town-meet- 
ings. The number of Deputies, for each town, was also fixed, which 
now constitutes one of the odious features of this Charter, to those 
who have found how difficult it is to obtain rights which are derived 
from a higher authority. 

The next day after the Charter Avas received, the old govern- 
ment surrendered to the new. 

The name of the colony was changed by this Charter. Rhode- 
Island, then containing more than two thirds of the freemen, gave 
the principal name to the State, and Newport became the capital. 
In May, 1664, the General Assembly passed the following reso- 
lution : " At present this General Assembly judgeth it their duty to 
signifye his Majestys gracious pleasure vouchsafed in those words 
to us verbatim (viz) that no person within the said colonic at any 
time hereafter shall be any ways molested, punished, disquieted or 
called in question, for any differences of opinion in matters of relig- 
ion, and do not actually disturb the civil peace of the sayd colony." 
Here was no exception as to Catholics, though Chalmers in his 
political annals of Rhode-Island, speaking of the acts of the Assem- 
bly in 1663, has represented the law regulating the admission of 
freemen as containing such an exception, and says — " a persecu- 
tion was immediately commenced against the Roman Catholics, who 
were deprived of the rights of citizens, and of the liberties of Eng. 
lishmen, though they might have pleaded their chartered privi- 
leges." The falsity of this charge has been made manifest, by a 



oi) 



true son of Rhode-Island,* for a long time our Secretary of State, 
and with an abihty which has caused many regrets that lie has not 
written our history. 

At the Assembly in May, 1664, the voting by proxy was author- 
ized, and a plurality of votes rendered sufficient for an election. 

The joy that was occasioned in the colony on the reception of 
the Charter, was soon damped by the proceedings of the King's 
Commissioners, Nichols, Can-, Cartright, and Maverick, in referen'ce 
to the Narragansett country. These gentlemen arrived at Boston, 
in July, 1664, to manage the war against the Dutch at Manhados, 
and settle the differences in the colonies. Manhados, since called 
New- York, surrendered in August of that year, and Col. Nichols 
remained there as Governor. The other Commissioners, in 1665, 
met at Warwick, to examine the claims of all persons to the Nar- 
ragansett country. They rejected all claims founded on Indian 
grants and mortgages, and, in consequence of the submission to the 
King of the Narragansett Sachems in 1664, to escape from the 
Massachusetts jurisdiction, and more formally acknowledged in 
1663, they decided that the right of jurisdiction and property be- 
longed to the King, saving the rights of the natives, and created it 
a royal province by the name of King's Province. They constitu- 
ted the Chief Magistrate and Assistants of Rhode-Island justices of 
the peace within the province, to do what they thought best for the 
peace and safety of said province. A portion of their decision was 
probably more agreeable to Rhode-Island, viz : « That no colony 
hath any just right to dispose of any lands conquered from the na- 
tives, unless both the cause of that conquest be just, and the lands 
lye within those bounds, which the King, by his Charter, hath given 
It, nor to exercise any authority beyond those bounds, "f 

In 1665, on motion of Portsmouth and Warwick, it was deter- 
mined that the Governor, Deputy.Governor and Assistants, should 
sit apart from the Deputies, and form two legislative branches, with 
equal and concurrent powers ; this was reconsidered in the follow, 
ing year, and they continued to form one branch until 1696, when 
they were again sep arated, and have remained as they now are. 
* Hon. Samuel Eddy. See App. E. ~~ 

t Declaration touching the Pequod country, April 4, 16G5. Documents 
from Massachusetts records in manuscript, transcribed for the R I Hist 
Society. Vol. 1, p. 247. 



56 

la 1671, Mr. John Clark was again sent to England, as agent for 
the colony, to endeavor to terminate the controversy with Connecti- 
cut ahout our western boundary, and the jurisdiction which she 
claimed within the Narragansett territory. This controversy lasted 
for mbre than sixty years from its commencement, and was the source 
of much trouble to the government and inhabitants of both colonies. 
It was ultimately decided in 1728, by the King in Council, and the 
boundaries settled by the commissioners of both colonies. 

The greatest calamity which befel the colony in its first century, 
was Philip's war, which broke out in 1675. From a tradition which 
descended from those English who lived nearest to Philip, and from 
those of his tribe who survived the war, it would appear that he was 
averse to it, and that he wept at the news of the first English that 
were killed, foreseeing the destruction of his people.* 

This war literally set all New-England in a blaze ; this colony 
had no part in its commencement ; but it was soon brought to their 
doors. The women and helpless of Philip's tribe fled to the Narra- 
gansetts for shelter and sustenance. They were hospitably re- 
ceived, and when they were demanded by the United Colonies, Ca- 
nonchet, the son of Miantinomo, exclaimed, inspired equally with in- 
dignation and sympathy — " Not a Wampanoag shall be delivered 
up. No, not the pairing of a Wampanoag's nail." In this deter- 
mination he was supported by the whole nation, and even by Pum- 
ham, who, on this occasion, became re-united to the confederacy. 
At this refusal, the troops of the United Colonies poured into Nar- 
ragansett. In December, 1G75, occurred what has been commonly 
called " the great swamp fight," in which the English fought with 
so much valor and success, and the Narragansetts were driven from 
their strong hold, (which contained their women and children, and 
their provisions for the winter,) their wigwams fired, and seven hun- 
dred of their warriors killed, besides women and children. Three 
hundred more died afterwards of their wounds, and very many per- 
ished from cold and hunger. 

Canonchet, and some of his warriors, escaped to join their forces 
with Philip, and to execute vengeance upon all who had English 
blood in their veins. This great battle caused the destruction of 
this powerful tribe, whose friendship was so early and constantly 

* Callender's Century Sermon, p. 73. 



57 

manifested to our fathers, and was so essential to their existence ; 
and who, according to the testimony of Roger Williams in 1655, had 
been true and faithful from the first, to the English of the United 
Colonies. 

Our settlements had extended far into the Narragansett country, 
and along the bay, and Westerly and Kingston had been incorpo- 
rated. The General Assembly determined that the ability of the 
colony was not sufficient to enable them to maintain garrisons to de- 
fend the out plantations, and recommended that the inhabitants should 
come to Rhode-Island for protection. They stated, that " Newport 
and Portsmouth inhabitants have taken such care, that those of the 
colony that comes, and cannot procure land to plant for themselves 
and families relief, may be supplied with land by the townes. And 
each family so wanting ability, shall have a cow kept upon the com- 
mons." The security of the island was provided for by a marine 
force, which was constantly on duty. Most of the inhabitants on 
the main, fled to the island for safety, and their houses were de- 
stroyed and plantations laid waste, by the exasperated natives. 
Many of the inhabitants of Providence sought this asylum, and 
among the rest the family of Roger Williams. He remained at 
Providence, relying somewhat upon his influence with the Indians ; 
but, in the last resort, upon his means of defence. We find him as 
Captain at the head of a train band ; and though this has been 
doubted, on account of his age, the commission by which Captain 
Arthur Fenner was appointed Commander of the King's Garrison, 
then first established at Providence, at the request of the inhabitants, 
sufficiently proves it. This was dated June 10th, 1676, and states that 
the authority given him as " chief commander of the king's garrison 
at Providence, and all other private garj'ison or garrisons there 
not eclipsing Capt. WiUiairi's pojver in the exercise of the train 
band there," &c. And a vote of the Assembly, in the same month, 
speaks of Indians " sent to this island by Capt. Roger Williams, 
from Providence." Williams was now 77 years of age. 

On the 14th March, 1675-6, every house in Warwick but one 
was burned ; the inhabitants having fled to the Island. 

On the 29th of the same month Providence was attacked by the 
Indians, and twenty-nine houses burned in the north part of the 
town, being more than one third of the whole number which the 



58 

town contained.* One of tliese contained the town records, which 
were partly rescued from the flames and thrown into the Moshas- 
suck, from thence they were afterwards taken, and sent to Newport 
for safe keeping. 

There is a tradition tliat Roger WilHams, on the approach of the 
Indians, walked out, with his staff, to meet them, and remonstrated 
with the Sachems, and warned them of the English power, but 
without effect ; that they expressed attachment to him, and guarded 
him, on his return to the garrison, lest he should be injured by their 
young men. 

In this war Smithfield, also, was laid waste. The war ended with 
the death of Philip, in August, 1676 ; but nearly sixty years passed 
away before Providence recovered her former numbers and pros- 
perity. Many of her inhabitants, who had taken shelter on Rhode- 
Island, remained there, and Newport flourished at the expense of 
her elder sister. 

In 1670 a rate of £ 300 was assessed on the several towns. Of 
this sum Newport was assessed £ 123 ; Providence £ 51 ; Ports- 
mouth £ 51 ; Warwick £ 32. The town of Westerly agreed to 
pay £ 65. Compare this with an assessment in 1678, two years 
after the war. In that year £ 300 was assessed on the several 
towns ;— on Newport £ 136 ; Providence £ 10 ; Portsmouth £ 68 ; 
Warwick £ 8 ; Westerly £ 2. 

By comparing these different assessments we perceive how much 
the towns on the main were impoverished by the war, whilst those 
on the island were increased in their resources. The greatest dis- 
parity appears in Westerly, that before the war voluntarily paid 65 
out of £300, and in 1678, was assessed £2 ! But the reduction of 
Providence from 51 to £ 10, shows the effect on her of this calam- 
itous war. 

The inhabitants of Narragansett, at the close of this war, found 
their lands claimed by Connecticut. " As the Rhode-Islanders had 
deserted the country (says Trumbull, in his history of Connecticut) 
in the war, and had done nothing in defence of it, and as the Con- 
necticut volunteers had driven the enemy entirely from that exten- 
sive tract, the legislature determined to plant and govern it, as part 
of this colony." 



* When the war broke out, Providence contained between seventy and 
eighty houses. 



59 

To these pretensions the General Assembly replied in a letter to 
Connecticut as follows : 

" Its well known, that the United Colonies did desert several of 
their out plantations, and some were by the enemy drove and neces- 
sitated so to do, for the safety of their lives. If for that cause only 
the colonys should loose their charter ritts, and particular persons 
their lands and privileges it would to them (and to all rational men) 
appear ridiculous, and without doubt disapproved by his majesty." 
They add in regard to the Narragan^etts : " Neither was there any 
manifestation of war against us from them, but always the contrary* 
till by the United Colonys they were forced to war, or such submis- 
sion as it seems they could not subject to ; thereby involving us in 
such hazards, charges and losses, which hath fallen upon us in our 
out plantations, that noe colony has received the like considering 
our number of people." 

This letter ably vindicated the rights of the colony, and intimated 
that such pretensions would be resisted by force, if necessary. 
Happily the chartered rights of this colony were not to be thus 
wrested from them ; though there was no human tribunal to protect 
the Indian. 

On the 20th April, 1676, died Mr. John Clarke, whose mem- 
ory should be held by the people of this State in lasting and 
grateful remembrance. His services to the Rhode-Island colony, 
in its infancy, and to the Narragansett colonies, after they became 
united, were great, and exceeded probably by none. He founded 
the second Baptist Church in the State, at Newport, of which he 
became the pastor, until his services were required to vindicate the 
rights of his fellow-citizens in England. Twelve years he remained 
in England, entrusted with the interests of the colony, which he 
protected with vigilance and great ability. He had the honor of 
soliciting and procuring the Charter of 1663, which quieted the fears 
of his fellow-citizens, enlarged the boundaries of the colony on the 
east, and contained those provisions for liberty of conscience, which 
have been so much admired. After his return from England, he 
was elected three years successively Deputy-Governor. He was 
a learned man ; in his will he bequeathed a Concordance and 
Lexicon, written by himself, the fruit of several years' study ; hav. 
ing no children, he gave a considerable portion of his property to 
relieve the poor, and to educate the children of the church which 
he had founded. 



60 

In 1663, this colony was troubled by the presence of Edward 
Cranfield, Governor of New-Hampshire, and others, in the Narra- 
gansett country, the government whereof he claimed under the 
king's commission, with authority to him and the others to deter- 
mine the disputes which existed between this colony and Connecti- 
cut. This colony refused to submit to their arbitration, or own his 
authority ; and a report was made by him and his associates in fa- 
vor of Connecticut. The subsequent troubles of Cranfield, in New- 
Hampshire, probably prevented this colony from being affected by 

this report. 

In April, 1683, Roger Williams died, aged 83, and was buried 
with military honors, having held a military commission, and with 
all the other honors that the town of Providence could bestow. He 
was buried in his own grounds; but where, alas! who can tell? 
The man who has given us a name and a place, has no place for his 
name among us ; no memorial tells where his ashes repose ; no 
monumental marble proclaims his services and our gratitude ! My 
fellow-citizens, this ought not so to be. If we cannot find the place 
of his burial, we ought to find a place where we can honor and 
perpetuate his memory, in a manner that shall tell our children's 
children how much we appreciated his principles, and how they 
should appreciate them. He has surrounded our little State with 
a o-lory which belongs not to empire ; let us manifest that we are 
worthy to participate in his fame. Let not the distinguished stran- 
ger, as he wanders over our City, or as he surveys from our proud- 
est height the bay, the cove, the halls of science, the temples of 
religion, and the extended line of population, from east to west, and 
from north to south— let not his eye wander in vain, let him no 
loncrer inquire in vain, for the Monument of Roger Williams. 

fn February, 1685, died Charles II., and James II. was duly 
proclaimed, at Newport, the succeeding April. The common ad- 
dresses were presented, intended to propitiate a new king, whose 
favor was so important to the colony. But we had as little reason 
as the nation to rejoice in his reign. 

In 1685, Massachusetts, New-Hampshirc, Maine, and the Narra- 
gansett country, were placed under the government of Joseph Dud- 
ley, of Massachusetts. This commission arrived at Boston, in May, 
1686. In December, of that year, arrived Sir Edmund Andros, 
with a commission from the king, for the govemment of all New- 



61 

England. Previously to this (in June preceding) a writ, of quo war- 
ranto, was served upon the colony, in consequence of certain articles 
of misdemeanor which had been exhibited, by Edward Randolph. 
He was the accuser-general of the colonies, and, in consequence of 
like proceedings against Massachusetts in 1684, a judgment was rcn- 
dered in chancery annulling her charter. The people of this colo- 
ny thought it not prudent to contend with tlie king, and submitted 
themselves and their charter to his mercy, petitioning for favor and 
forgiveness, if through ignorance they had erred. 

In December, 1686, Andros dissolved the government of Rhode- 
Island, broke its seal, and admitted five of its inhabitants into his 
legislative council, and Rhode-Island formed acounty under his gov- 
ernment. Andros's government was deemed oppressive by us, but 
was particularly obnoxious to Massachusetts. Sir Edmund, for the 
purpose of introducing the church of England into Massachusetts, 
was ordered to grant universal toleration in religion. This was as 
offensive to Massachusetts, as the like attempt of Charles II. to the 
Parliament of England. If he had done nothing worse than this, he 
would not have deserved to have been transmitted to posterity as a 
tyrant ; a character to which he is entitled as Governor of New- 
England. , 

His tyranny did net last long. The revolution of 1688, caused 
the fall of his master; and when tidings reached Massachusetts 
which rendered this event probable. Sir Edmund was imprisoned, 
and with difficulty saved from the rage of the people. 

The people of Rhode-Island resumed their chartered rights, on 
the ground that no judgment had been rendered against them. At 
an assembly of the freemen of the colony at Newport, May 1, 1689, 
a vote was passed unanimously, confirming the former Governor, 
Walter Clarke, and the former Deputy-Governor and Assistants, 
who were in place in 1686, at the coming over of Sir Edmund An- 
dros. Though there was this unanimity at this meeting, there were 
doubts as to the propriety of this course in the colony. Walter 
Clarke, who had been one of Andros's council refused to act as 
Governor, and but six of the former Assistants attended the next 
meeting of the Assembly. Christopher Almy was elected by the 
General Assembly, Governor, in place of Clarke, but he also re- 
fused to serve, and Mr. Henry Bull was elected Governor. He was 
one of the first purchasers and settlers of the island ; though at this 



62 

lime advanced in age, he had firmness sufficient to accept of the of- 
fice to which he was elected, to preserve the government and the 
chartered rights of the colony. The doubts which at first existed, 
as to the propriety of proceeding under the charter, after the seal 
had been broken and the government dissolved by Andros, subsided 
when it was found that no objection was made by the government 
of England to the course which had been adopted ; and the govern- 
ment under this Charter has continued to the present time. 

In 1691, a new Charter was granted to Massachusetts, which 
included Plymouth under the same government. 

The various wars that ensued from this time until the peace of 
1763, between England and France, required the colonies to unite 
their forces with those of the mother country, against the French 
dominions in North America. This bound the colonies together by 
interest and sympathy, and Rhode-Island, though, in former days, 
she was not allowed to enter the confederacy of the New-England 
colonies, was soon found of sufficient importance to be consulted, 
and her aid required. 

In the General Convention of the Colonies, holden at Albany in 
1754, Rhode-Island was represented by Stephen Hopkins. He was 
one of that Committee which drew up the first plan of union for the 
colonies. 

In 1765, when a convention of the colonies at New-York declared 
their rights and grievances, in consequence of the Stamp Act, and 
other acts which taxed the colonists without their consent, Rhode- 
Island was there. The first forcible act of resistance to these laws 
was by the men of Providence, in the destruction of the Gaspee. 
Captain Whipple beat up for volunteers, who flocked to the whale 
boats ; and one* who is now here can tell the sequel — " all of which 
he saw, and part of which he was." 

Nor was Rhode-Island backward in the contest : she was among 
the foremost to provoke. In May, 1775, she raised three regiments, 
called an army of observation, and appointed to their command Gen. 
Nathaniel Greene. They were soon placed at the disposal of Con- 
gress. 

To the heroic Declaration of Independence, were subscribed the 

* Colonel Ephraim Bowcii. The enterprise, it is said, was planned in the 
Iiouse of the late Welcome Arnold, Esq. of this town ; now the residence of 
his son. 



63 

names of Stephen Hopkins and William EUery. The hand of 
Hopkins trembled,* but not his heart ; this was as firm as when he 
wrote "The rights of the colonies examined."! 

At Roxbury, Trenton, Princeton, Red Bank, and Yorktown, the 
sons of Rhode-Island redeemed the pledge her statesmen had given. 

And let it never be forgotten, that, in the darkest hour of that 
eventful contest, when all but a Washington would have despaired, 
and he but for his trust in Heaven, when our island and the waters 
of our bay were in possession of the enemy, the troops from this 
State (whose proportion was one fiftieth) constituted one seventh of 
that little army which held the bridge of Trenton against a numer- 
ous foe ; which conquered at Princeton, and revived to new energy 
a desponding people. It was in this hour of danger and suffering, 
amidst the snows of December, and hanger, and nakedness, that the 
Rhode-Island troops offered themselves again to their country at 
the call of patriotism, when their term of service had nearly expired, 
and they were desirous of defending their own shores. We have 
also here a living witness who can tell of Colonels Lippitt, Hitch- 
cock and Varnum, and of the suflferings and services of the Rhode- 
Island regiments. :j: 

We might speak of Captain Nicholas Cook, who took command 
of the good ship Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, when the 
storm was approaching and her commander had deserted, and 
brought her in safety around the Cape of Good Hope.^ We might 
tell 

" Of moving accidents, by flood and field : 

Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breacli ;" 

of Hopkins, Talbot, Whipple, Thomas ; of Barton, Cornell ; of our 
Greenes and Olneys ; and of others, equal in noble daring. 

" Whoe'er, amidst the sons 
Of reason, valor, liberty and virtue, 
Displays distinguish'd merit, is a noble 
Of Nature's own creating. Such have risen. 
Sprung from the dust, or where had been our honors ?" 

* From a paralytic affection. 

t This was printed here by order of the General Assembly, and in Eng- 
land it was reprinted and presented to the King. 

t John Rowland, Esq. President of the Riiode-Island Historical Society. 

§ Nicholas Cook, Esq. was elected Governor in place of Governor Wanton, 
whose principles were adverse to the Revolution. 



64 

We could speak of a State in arms, and, for several years, ex- 
posed to continual depredation and alarm. Newport has not re- 
covered from her losses,* and the island will never again see her 
beautiful groves. Many of the inhabitants of Newport removed to 
Providence, and experienced the same sympathy and kindness which 
was extended to the inhabitants of Providence, by Newport, in Phil- 
ip's war. 

Rhode.Island history is rich in character and incident, and though 
I have detained you long, the half has not been told you. 

At the return of peace, Rhode-Island was exhausted by thestrug 
gle ; the State, and many of her citizers, were deeply in debt, with 
nothing to pay. In this emergency, were adopted those paper mo- 
ney and tender laws, which produced, in their day, so much conten- 
tion and reproach, but which probably saved us from civil war. 

From the dissensions which followed, and the distresses of the 
State, WG refused to grant the impost which Congress had requested. 
We had no lands to look to, for revenue, but depended on com- 
merce ; we wished not to surrender our all, while other States, 
whose services had been proportionally not so great, were made 
rich in territory by the result of the contest. This probably pre- 
vented Rhode-Island from sending delegates to the Convention 
which formed the federal Constitution, and caused her to be the last 
of the thirteen to adopt it. She will now be among the last of the 
twenty-six to desert it. It is her sheet anchor, and, under God, her 
best hope. Her early history has taught her the necessity of look- 
ing abroad for protection, and, without the protection which the 
Constitution affords to her commerce and manufacturing industr)^, 
she is now sensible she would be as poor as most of her soil, and of 
no more account than her territorial jurisdiction. 

* In 1770, the population of Newport was 9,029. Providence then had but 
4,321 inhabitants. . Seven years after the revolutionay war, in 1790, New- 
port had 6,716 inhabitants, and Providence 6,380. In these twenty years, 
Newport lost 2,493, and Providence gained 2,059 inhabitants. 

The population of Newport, in 1830, was 8,010 ; and that of Providence, 
16,832. So that in 1830, Newport had not so many inhabitants as she had 
five years before the revolutionary war, by one thousand and nineteen. This 
gives us a view of only a portion of the losses Newport sustained by the rev- 
olutionary war. We trust, her delightful climate, and the power of steam, 
which has already given an impulse to her manufacturing industry, will soon 
present us with another picture. 



65 

The wonder-working power of machinery, so intimately associ- 
ated with the name of Slater, is among us, and though it cannot en- 
large the bounds of the State, it has extended the territory of its cit- 
izens, and promises to do for us, in some degree, what it accom- 
plished for our father land, giving to it the ability to subsidize Eu- 
rope, and contend with Napoleon in arms. 

But it is not wealth which constitutes a State — 

♦' No ; men, high minded men ; 

Men, who their duties know, 
But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain, 

Prevent the long aimed blow, 
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain ; 
These constitute a State." 

Such have been the men of Rhode-Island, and, if we use our riches 
to extend the knowledge of these duties and rights, and to counteract 
the evil tendencies of superfluous wealth, we may hope that such 
men will continue to inhabit the land of the Narragansett pilgrims. 

Men of Providence ! did the heart of Roger Williams overflow for 
the mercies here afforded him in the wilderness, and have we no cause 
for gratitude ? On every side we behold evidences of the successful 
enterprise of our Mercliants, Manufacturers and Mechanics. 

This temple,* erected in 1775, bears testimony to the prosperity 
of the town at that period, and proclaims the architectural skill and 
taste, as well as the pious munificence of hisf descendants who was 

* The First Baptist Meeting-House, where the Discourse was pronounced, 
t Rev. Chad Brown, one of the earliest of the second comers to Providence. 
He signed the covenant for "town fellowship" in August 1637, (see ante page 
25,) and was ordained Pastor of the Firt^t Baptist Church in 1642. His grand- 
son, the Rev. James Brown, was ordained Pastor over this church, October 28, 
1732. The four brothers, Nicholas, Joseph, John, and Moses Brown, were 
grandsons of the Rev. James Brown. Nicholas Brown died in 1791. His survi- 
ving children are Nicholas Brown, the munificent patron of Brown Universi- 
ty, after whom it was called, and Mrs. Hope Ives, relict of the late Thomas 
P. Ives. Joseph Brown made the draught agreeably to which the First Bap- 
tist Meeting-House was built. He was distinguished for his philosophical 
attainments, and was Professor of Natural Philosophy in Rhode-Island Col- 
lege. John Brown laid the corner stone of the College in 1770, and was dis- 
tinguished for his mercantile enterprise and success, and his enlarged and lib- 
eral views in relation to the unprovement of the town. The first India voy- 
age from this town was made in his ship. 

Moses Brown, the youngest of the four brothers, yet survives, having lived 
I 



G6 

a pastor and one of tlie founders of the church ; and yonder halls 
of science* shall bear tlie name to succeeding generations, while 
they whose riches " perish with the using," or are reserved for heirs 
they know not who, are 

" Unwept, unhonored and unsung." 
We are suri'ounded with numerous memorials of the same piety and 
liberality which erected this, which have since successively arisen. 

Our public schools are numerous, and supported with a wise lib- 
erality, sensible as we are, that fi-eedom without morality and intel- 
ligence, must end in anarchy. 

We have abundant reason to be thankful for the ample provision 
which is here made for the great interests of religion and learning. 

We rejoice that our disputes with our neighbors are nearly ended, 
and that what remains,f is to be determined by a tribunal, in whose 
justice and intelligence we have full confidence. We now behold 
our neighbors on the Roger Williams platform, and congratulate 
them on the change ; and we rejoice that the children of the same 
puritan fathers are one, and we trust, indivisible. 

For civil and religious liberty ; for our beautiful shores and un- 
rivalled bay ; for peace in our borders, and plenty and health in our 
dwellings ; for the various blessings of civilization and government, 
we should thank Him who hath numbered all the hairs of our head, 
and without whose notice not a sparrow falls to the ground. 

Let then our song of joy and gratitude arise to the giver and 
preserver of all, for his manifold mercies to our fathers, and his rich 
bounty to us — and may the sound be prolonged, in future centuries, 
when our descendants shall assemble, in memory of their fathers, 
and swell the loud psean of their gratitude. 

nearly a century. He will be 98, should he live to the 23d Sept. 1836. He 
was a liberal patron of the college, and more recently, of the college belonging 
to the Society of Friends, erected in this town, in 1818. These four brothers 
were liberal benefactors to Rhode-Island College, and the thi-ee first, more par- 
ticularly, and then- descendants, to the Fii-st Baptist Society. 

For much interesting information relative to the history of Brown Univer- 
sity, see Notes, prepared by Professor Goddard, to the Discourse delivered at 
the dedication of Manning Hall, February 4, 1835, by Dr. Wayland, Presi- 
dent of Brown University. 

* Brown University. 

t The question in reference to our northern boundary, now pending before 
the Supreme Court of the United States, between Rhode-Itsland and Masea- 
chusetts. 



APPENDIX. 



Note A— Page 21. 

DEED OF THE CHIEF SACHEMS OF NARRAGANSETT TO ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" At Narraganset, the 24th of the first month, commonly called 
March, the second year of the plantation or planting at Moshassuck, 
or Providence ; Memorandum, that we, Canonicus and Miantinomo, 
the two chief sachems of Narraganset, having two years since sold 
unto Roger Williams the lands and meadows upon the two fresh 
rivers, called Moshassuck and Wanasquatuckct, do now, by these 
presents, establish and confirm the bounds of these lands, from the 
river and fields of Pawtucket, the great hill of Notaquoncanot, on 
the northwest, and the town of Mashapaug, on the west. We 
also, in consideration of the many kindnesses and services he hath 
continually done for us, both with our friends of Massachusetts, as 
also at Connecticut, and Apaum, or Plymouth, we do freely give 
unto him all that land from those rivers reaching to Pawtuxet river; 
as also the grass and meadows upon the said Pawtuxet river. In 
witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands. 

The mark (a bow) of CANONICUS. 

The mark (an arrow) of MIANTINOMO. 

In the presence of 
The mark of Sohash. 
The mark of Alsomunsit. 

" 1639. Memorandum. 3d month, 9th day, this was all again 
confirmed by Miantinomo. He acknowledged, that he also [illegi- 
ible] and gave up the streams of Pawtucket and Pawtuxet, without 
limits, we might have for our use of cattle. 
Witness hereof, 
Roger Williams, 
Benedict Arnold." 



Note B— Page 22. 

agreement in regard to pawtuxet lands. 

Octoher 8th, 1638. 
" It is agreed, this day abovesaid, that all the meadow grounds 
at Pawtuxet, bounding upon the fresh river, on both sides, are to be 



68 

impropriated unto those thirteen persons, being now incorporated 
together in our town of Providence, viz : Ezekiel Holliman, Fran- 
cis Weston, Roger WiUiams, Thomas Olney, Robert Cole, WiUiam 
Carpenter, William Harris, John Throckmorton, Richard Water- 
man, John Greene, Thomas James, William Arnold, Stukely West- 
cott ; and to be equally divided among them, and every one to pay 
an equal proportion to raise up the sum of twenty pounds for the 
same ; and if it shall come to pass, that some, or any one, of these 
thirteen persons aforesaid, do not pay or give satisfaction of his or 
their equal proportion of the aforesaid sum of twenty pounds, by this 
day eight weeks, which will be tlie 17th day of the 10th month next 
ensuing, then they or he shall leave their or his proportion of meadow 
grounds unto the rest of those thirteen persons, to be at their dispos- 
ing, who shall make up the whole sum of twenty pounds, which is 
to be paid to Roger Williams." 

This money was punctually paid on the 3d of December follow- 
ing, and was acknowledged as follows : — 

" According to jR^-mer agreement, I received of the neighbors 
abovesaid, the full sum of £18 Us. 2d. Per me, 

ROGER WILLIAMS." 



Note C— Page 23. 

DEED OF CONFIRMATION FROM ROGER WILLIAMS TO HIS ASSOCIATES, 
SOMETIMES CALLED THE HISTORICAL DEED. 

" Be it known unto all men by these presents, that I, Roger Wil- 
Hams, of the town of Providence, in the Naraganset Bay, in New- 
England, having, in the year one thousand six hundred thirty-four, 
and in the year one thousand six hundred thirty.five, had several 
treaties with Canonicus and Miantinomo, the two chief sachems of 
the Narraganset, and in the end purchased of them the lands and 
meadows upon the two fresh rivers called Moshassuck and Wanas- 
quatucket, the two sachems having, by a deed, under their hands, 
two years after tlie sale thereof, established and confirmed the 
bounds of these lands from the rivers and fields of Pawtucket, the 
great hill of Notaquoncanot on the northwest, and the town of 
Mashapnug on the west, notwithstanding I had the frequent promise 
of Miantinomo, my kind friend, that it" should not be land that I 
should want about these bounds mentioned, provided that I satisfied 
the Indians there inhabiting. I having made covenant of peaceable 
neighborhood with all the sachems and natives round about us, and 
having, of a sense of God's merciful Providence unto me in my dis- 
tress, called the place Providence, I desired it might be for a shelter 



69 

for persons distressed for conscience. I then considering tlic con- 
dition of divers of my distressed countrymen, I communicated my 
said purchase unto my loving friends, John Throckmorton, William 
Arnold, William Harris, Stukely Westcott, Jolni Greene, Senior, 
Thomas Olney, Senior, Richard Waterman, and others, who then 
desired to take shelter here with me, and in succession unto so 
many others as we should receive into the fullowsliip and society of 
enjoying and disposing of the said purchase ; and besides the first 
that were admitted, our town records declare, that afterwards we 
received Chad Brown, William Field, Tliomas Harris, Senior, Wil- 
liam Wickenden, Robert Williams, Gregory Dexter, and others, as 
our town book declares ; and whereas, by God's merciful assist- 
ance, I was the procurer of the purchase, not by monies nor pay- 
ment, the natives being so shy and jealous that monies could not do 
it, but by that language, acquaintance and favor with the natives, 
and other advantages, which it pleased God to give me, and also 
bore the charges and venture of all tiie gratuities, which I gave to 
the great sachems and other sachems and natives round about us, 
and lay engaged for a loving and peaceable neighborhood with 
them, to my great charge and travel ; it was therefore thought fit 
by some loving friends, that I should receive some loving considera- 
tion and gratuity, and it was agreed between us, that every person 
that should be admitted into the fellowship of enjoying land and dis. 
posing of the purchase, should pay thirty shillings unto the public 
stock ; and first, about thirty pounds sliould be paid unto myself, by 
thirty shillings a person, as they were admitted ; this sum I received, 
and in love to my friends, and with respect to a town and place of 
succor for the distressed as aforesaid, I do acknowledge the said 
sum and payment as full satisfaction ; and wliereas in the year one 
thousand six hundred and thirty-seven, so called, I delivered the 
deed subscribed by the two aforesaid chief sachems, so much there- 
of as concerneth the aforementioned lands, from myself and from 
my heirs, unto the whole number of the purchasers, with all my 
power, right and title therein, reserving only unto myself one single 
share equal unto any of the rest of that number ; I now again, in a 
more formal way, under my hand and seal, confirm my former re- 
signation of that deed of the lands aforesaid, and bind myself, my 
heirs, my executors, my administrators and assigns, never to molest 
any of the said persons already received, or hereafter to be received, 
into the society of purchasers, as aforesaid ; but that they, their 
heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, shall at all times quietly 
and peaceably enjoy the premises and every part thereof, and I do 
further by these presents bind myself, my heirs, my executors, my 
administrators and assigns, never to lay any claim, nor cause any 
claim to be laid, to any of the lands aforementioned, or unto any 
part or parcel thereof, more than unto my own single share, by vir- 
tue or pretence of any former bargain, sale or mortgage whatsoever, 



70 

or jointures, thirds or entails made by me, the said Roger WiUiamS;, 
or of any other person, either for, by, through or under mc. In 
witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the twen- 
tieth day of December, in the present year one thousand six hun- 
dred sixty-one. 

" ROGER WILLIAMS. (Seal.) 

" Signed, scaled and delivered in the presence of us, Thomas 
Smith, Joseph Carpenter. Memorandum, the words, of the pur- 
chase, were interlined before these presents were sealed. I, Mary 
Williams, wife unto Roger Williams, do assent unto the premises. 
Witness my hand, this twentieth day of December, in this present 
year, one thousand six hundred sixty-one. 

The mark of (M. W.) MARY WILLIAMS. 
" Acknowledged and subscribed before me, 

" WILLIAM FIELD, Assistant. 
" Enrolled, April the 6th, 1662, pr. me, 

"THOMAS OLNEY, Junr., Towm Clerk." 



Note D— Page 23. 

DEED FROM KOGER WILLIAMS TO HIS TWELVE ORIGINAL ASSOCIATES. 

^'■Providence, 8th of the 8th month, 1638, (so called.) 

" Memorandum, that I, Roger Williams, having formerly pur- 
chased of Canonicus and Miantinomo, this our situation, or planta- 
tion, of New-Providence, viz. the two fresh rivers, Wanasquatuckef 
and Moshassuck, and the ground and meadows thereupon ; in con- 
sideration of thirty pounds received from the inhabitants of said 
place, do freely and fully pass, grant and make over equal right 
and power of enjoying and disposing of the same gi'ounds and lands 
unto my loving friends and neighbors, Stukely Westcott, William 
Arnold, Thomas James, Robert Cole, John Greene, John Throck- 
morton, William Harris, William Carpenter, Th.omas Olney, Fran- 
cis Weston, Richard Waterman, Ezekiel Holliman, and such others 
as the major part of us shall admit into the same fellowship of vote 
with us : — As also I do freely make and pass over equal right and 
power of enjoying and disposing of the lands and grounds reaching 
from the aforfsaid rivers unto the great river Pawtuxet, with the 
grass and meadows thereupon, which was so lately given and grant- 
ed by the aforesaid sachems to mc. Witness my hand, 

ROGER WILLIAMS." 



Note E— Page 55. 

The statement of Mr. Eddy will be found among the notes ap- 
pended to Walsh's Review, pp. 429 to 435, 

The great object of Mr. Eddy was to show tliat this statement 
of Chalmers was untrue, and to vindicate the fathers of this State 
from the aspersion which was thus cast upon their memories, and 
in this he was eminently successful. Whatever imputation may 
rest upon the Rhode-Island Legislature from 1719 to 1745, it is 
very clear that those who established, in Rhode-Island, the great 
principle of liberty of conscience, were consistent to the last : their 
sun went down with the same radiance with which it arose. 

The manuscript Digest of the Rhode-Island Laws of 1719, con- 
tained not the obnoxious exception, nor was it to be found in any of 
the preceding records of the State. It is found in the printed Digest 
of 1745, and is there stated as having passed in 1663-4. Mr. Ed- 
dy shows how this mistake arose. 

But we should be careful (in our anxiety to remove what has been 
called a blot upon our history, and to show that it rested not upon 
the fathers of this colony) that we do not, in our sensitiveness, over- 
look the true character of the act which appears in the Digest of 
1745. It will appear that it did not conflict with the liberty of con- 
science secured by the Charter of 1663-4. This very act provides 
that all " rights and privileges granted to this colony by his Maj- 
esty's Charter, be entirely kept and preserved to all his Majesty's 
subjects residing in or belonging to the same." Roman Catho- 
lies were not by this law prevented from coming into this colony, 
or subjected to any penalty or prosecution on account of their 
religion whilst remaining within it, but had free liberty to enjoy 
the same without being in " any wise (in the words of the Charter) 
molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any differ- 
ences in opinion in matters of religion." They were disqualified 
simply from electing and being elected to office, and were therefore 
no more subject to persecution than those who possess not the 
estate required to be admitted freemen. In Rhode-Island a man 
may be a free inhabitant, entitled to all the benefits of protection 
from the laws, and the full enjoyment of life, liberty, property and 
religion, without being o. freeman. Before he can have any voice in 
town affairs, or in the political elections of the State, he must be ad- 
mitted Bl freeman by a vote of the town wherein he dwells. In Feb- 
ruary, 1783, an act passed which provided that ^^ Roman Catholic 
citizens being of competent estates, and of civil conversation, and 
acknowledging and paying obedience to the civil magistrate, might 
be admitted freemen and have liberty to choose and be chosen civil 
or military officers." 



72 



The following was omitted in its proper place, and is here in- 
serted as a most interesting fact in our early history. It is one of 
the earliest acts on record, in American or European history, in 
mitigation of African Slavery. It was passed May 19, 1652, by 
the government of Providence and Warwick, whilst separated from 
Newport and Portsmouth, by Coddington's obstruction. It is in 
these words : 

♦' Whereas there is a common course practised among English- 
men to bring Negers, to the end they may have them for service or 
slaves forever ; for the preventing of such practices among us let 
it be ordered, that no hlack-mankind, or white being formed by cov- 
enant bond or otherwise, to serve any man or his assigns longer 
than ten years (until they come to be twenty-four years of age, if 
they be taken in under fourteen) from the time of their coming 
within the liberties of this colony ; and at the end or term of ten 
years to set them free as the manner is with the English servants. 
And that man that will not let them go free, or shall sell him away 
elsewhere, to the end that they may be enslaved to others for a 
longer time, he or they shall forfeit to the colony forty pounds." 



The author would here acknowledge the essential aid he received, in pre- 
paring the preceding discourse, from the Historical Collections of Henry 
Bull, Esq. of Newport, which have heen, (since January 3d, 1832,) and still 
continue to be published in the " Rhode-Island Republican," printed at New- 
port. Mr. Bull is a lineal descendant of Governor Bull, who accepted of the 
government under the circumstances mentioned in page 61. We hope he will 
persevere and finish the labors he has begun ; they will be of great service to 
the future historian of Rhode-Island. 



Erratum. — Page 13, line 7th, for " should not break," read ^'should break 
forth at once." 



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